•m 


•m 


Given  in  Memory  of 
Coral  Windsor  Barnes  (1900-! 
M.A. '33,  a  descendar>tAJSr 
central  Illinois  pioneers, 

his  son 
A.  Barnes, 


University  of  Illinois 
at  Urbana-Champaign 

ILLINOIS  HISTORICAL  SURV 


sf~  /,' 

• 


, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS,  ' 


CONTAININQ  A 

FULL  ACCOUNT   OF  THE  BLACK  HAWK   WAR,   THE  RISE,  PROGRESS, 

AND  FALL  OF  MORMONISM,  THE  ALTON  AND  LOVEJOY  RIOTS, 

AND  OTHER  IMPORTANT  AND  INTERESING  EVENTS. 


BY  THE  LATE 

GOV.   THOMAS   FORD. 


CHICAGO  : 
PUBLISHED    BY    S.   C.   GRIGGS    &    CO., 

Ill      LAKE      STREET. 

NEW   YORK:    IVISON   &   PHINNEY. 
1854. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1854,  by 

S.    C.    GRIGGS    &    CO., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Northern  District  of 
New  York. 


STEREOTYPED    BT  PRINTED    BT 

THOMAS  B.  SMITH,  JOHN  F.  TROW, 

216  William  St.  49  Ann  St. 


7/7.  .5  J.U..  HIST- 

F75h  ^WP 


BY     QEN.     JAMES     SHIELDS. 


IN  1850,  while  the  author  of  this  work  was  on  his 
death-bed,  he  placed  in  my  hands  a  manuscript,  with 
the  contents  of  which  I  was  then  wholly  unacquainted, 
with  the  injunction  that  after  his  decease  I  should  have 
it  published  for  the  benefit  of  his  family.  He  soon  after 
departed  this  life,  leaving  his  orphan  children  in  a  des- 
titute condition. 

In  compliance  with  his  dying  request,  I  made  re- 
peated efforts  to  have  the  work  published  on  terms  that 
might  secure  some  percentage  to  the  orphans,  but  until 
my  arrangements  with  the  present  publishers,  all  these 
efforts  proved  unsuccessful.  By  this  arrangement  the 
children  will  receive  a  liberal  percentage  on  the  sales  of 
the  work. 

The  author,  during  his  whole  life,  had  very  favorable 
opportunities  for  observing  events  and  collecting  infor- 
mation connected  with  the  history  of  his  State.  He 
was  yet  a  child  when  his  parents  emigrated  to  Illinois. 
On  arriving  at  maturity  he  was  there  admitted  to  the 
bar,  and  practised  his  profession  for  many  years  with 


vi  INTRODUCTION. 

very  considerable  success.  He  was  afterwards  elected 
an  Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State, 
and  discharged  the  duties  of  that  responsible  station 
with  distinguished  ability.  Subsequently  he  was  chosen 
Governor  of  the  State,  which  was  the  last  public  office 
he  held.  From  this  office  he  retired  to  private  life,  and 
during  his  retirement  prepared  this  history  for  publica- 
tion. His  opinions  of  men  and  measures  are  very  freely 
and  unreservedly  expressed ;  but  they  may  be  regarded  as 
the  opinions  of  a  man  of  strong  feelings,  who  took  such 
an  active  part  in  many  of  the  scenes  which  he  repre- 
sents, that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  describe  them 
with  ordinary  moderation. 

I  regret  the  severity  of  some  of  the  author's  judg- 
ments, and  the  censure  with  which  he  assails  the  char- 
acter of  some  of  our  public  men,  who  are  both  my  per- 
sonal and  political  friends ;  but  I  feel  it  to  be  incumbent 
upon  me,  by  the  very  nature  and  circumstances  of  the 
trust,  not  only  to  have  the  work  published  according  to 
his  injunction,  for  the  purpose  intended  by  him,  but 
also  to  abstain  from  making  any  alteration  in  the  text. 
I  therefore  give  it  to  the  public  just  as  I  received  it 
from  the  hands  of  the  author,  and  with  the  sincere 
hope,  for  the  sake  of  his  destitute  children,  that  it  may 
meet  with  an  indulgent  and  generous  reception. 

WASHINGTON,  Feb.  3d,  1854. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


PAGE 

Petition  of  the  Territorial  Legislature  to  Congress  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union — Bill 
reported  by  Judge  Pope,  the  territorial  Delegate — Amendments  proposed  by  him — 
Boundaries  of  the  State  enlarged — Ordinances  of  1787 — Claim  of  Wisconsin  to  the 
fourteen  northern  counties— Reasons  for  extending  the  boundaries — Call  of  a  Con- 
vention— Constitution  adopted — E.  K.  Kane — Petition  of  the  Covenanters — Organi- 
zation of  the  State  Government — Gov.  Bond  recommends  the  Canal  to  Lake  Mich- 
igan—Judge Foster — Judge  Thomas— Legislature  of  1819 — Code  of  laws — Removal 
of  the  Seat  of  Government  to  Vaudalia — Origin  of  the  name  Vandalia — Charac- 
ter of  the  people— Notice  of  the  French  villages  and  of  the  early  American  set- 
tlers— Schools,  learned  professions — The  early  preachers — Pursuits  and  business  of 
the  people — Their  ingenuity — Anecdote  of  James  Lemon — Commerce — Money — 
Speculation— Banks  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky — General  indebtedness— Money  crisis 
—Creation  of  the  State  Bank  of  1821— Its  history— Col.  Menard— John  M'Lean— 
Judge  Young— First  duel— Judge  Lockwood 19 

CHAPTER  H. 

Gov.  Coles,  Judges  Philips  and  Brown,  and  Gen.  Moore — The  question  of  Slavery — 
The  Missouri  question— Immigrants  from  the  Slave  States  to  Missouri — Growing 
desire  for  the  introduction  of  Slavery — The  Slavery  party — Effort  for  a  Convention 
to  amend  the  Constitution — Hanson  and  Shaw — Resolution  for  a  Convention  pass- 
ed— The  riotous  conduct  of  the  Slave  party — The  free  State  party  rally — Contest  be- 
tween them  in  the  election  of  1824 — Principal  men  of  each  party — The  Convention 
defeated— Character  of  early  political  contests— No  measures  ;"  and  no  parties  of 
Whig  or  Democrat,  Federalist  or  Republican — Effect  of  regular  political  parties — 
Reorganization  of  the  Judiciary — Circuit  Courts  established— First  case  of  pro- 
scription— Causes  the  repeal  of  the  Circuit  Courts — Road  law  and  School  law  pro- 
viding for  a  tax ;  operated  well,  but  were  repealed — Hatred  of  taxation — School 
law  of  1840;  of  1845— Wm.  Thomas,  H.  M.  Wood,  John  S.  Wright,  and  Thomp- 
son Campbell — Present  state  of  Schools — Revision  of  the  laws  by  Judges  Lock- 
wood  and  Smith — Gov.  Edwards — Mr.  Sloe — Lieut.  Gov.  Hubbard — His  speech, 
aa  a  candidate  for  Governor— His  speech  about  Wolf  scalps — The  old  State  Bank 
again — Effort  to  investigate  its  management — Resisted  by  the  Bank  officers — Gov. 
Edwards'  messages — A  packed  committee  report  against  the  Governor — Power  of 
a  broken  Bank— Combinations  to  commit  crime  or  resist  law — Daniel  P.  Cook — 
Gov.  Duncan — Change  of  political  parties — Gen.  Jackson's  defeat,  aud  subsequent 
election— Influence  of  this  upon  parties — Gov.  Duncan's  change— Winnebago  War 
— Galena—"  Suckers"—"  Pukes"— The  chief,  Red  Bird— Gov.  Edwards'  claim  to 
the  public  lands— Sale  of  School  lands— Borrowing  of  the  School  fund 50 

CHAPTER  HI. 

Review— Election  of  State  Treasurer  in  1827— Election  and  defalcation  of  Sherifls— 
Courts — Judges— Sentence  of  Green— Instructions  to  juries— The  hung  jury— Law 
of  1846 — Eminent  lawyers — Character  of  litigation— Election  by  ballot — The  keep- 
dark  system— The  "  butcher-knife  boys"— Influences  in  the  Legislature — Greasing 


V1U  CONTENTS. 

Pior 

and  swallowing,  &.c— Aims  of  politicians  and  of  the  people— Anecdote  of  Senator 
Crozier— Good  and  bad  self-government — Rule  to  test  the  capacity  of  the  people 
for  either — Educated  ministers  of  the  Gospel — Ill-will  towards  them  of  some  of 
the  old  ministers— Room  enough  for  both— Benevolent  institutions  and  education 
--Colleges — Change  of  dress  among  young  people — Regrets  of  the  old  folks — Ef- 
fects of  attending  church  on  Sundays — Effects  of  not  attending  church  on  Sundays 
upon  young  people — Progress  in  cpmmerce-j-Character  of  first  merchants — Sell- 
Ing  for  money  supplied  by  emigration — Nothing  raised  for  or  shipped  to  foreign 
markets— Flat-boats— Farmers  taking  their  own  crops  to  market,  and  bad  effects 
of  it — Foreign  markets— Steamboats  and  high  rates  of  exchange  encourage  the 
merchants  to  become  exporters — Bad  effects  of  farmers  holding  their  produce  from 
market,  expecting  a  higher  price — This  practice  contrasted  with  the  New  England 
practice  of  selling  at  the  market  price — Good  effects  of  this  practice — Prosperity 
of  northern  Illinois  in  a  great  measure  owing  to  this 81 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Extent  of  settlements  in  1830 — Election  for  Governor  that  year— Judge  John  Rey- 
nolds—William Kinney — Further  development  of  party— Description  of  an  elec- 
tion of  contest — Reynolds  elected  by  Jackson  and  anti-Jackson  men — Legislature 
of  1831  bound  to  redeem  the  notes  of  the  old  State  bank— Horror  of  increasing 
taxes — Fears  of  the  Legislature — The  Wiggins'  loan — All  the  members  broke  down 
— The  little  bull  law — Penitentiary  punishments — Curious  contest  for  State  Treas- 
urer— Indian  disturbances-^-Treaties  with  the  Indians — Black  Hawk's  account  of 
them — His  character — He  invades  the  Rock  river  country — Call  for  volunteers — 
March  to  Rock  Island — Escape  of  the  Indians — New  treaty  with  them — Next  year 
Black  Hawk  returns — Volunteers  again  called  for — March  of  Gov.  Reynolds  and 
Gen.  Whiteside— Burning  of  Prophet's  town— Arrival  at  Dixon— Majors  Stillman 
and  Bailey — Route  at  Stillman's  run — Account  of  it  by  a  volunteer  Colonel — Coun- 
cil of  war — Gen.  Whiteside  marches  in  pursuit  of  the  Indians — Massacre  of  In- 
dian Creek — Two  young  ladies  captured  and  restored — Gen.  Whiteside  buries  the 
dead  and  marches  back  to  Dixon — Meets  Gen.  Atkinson — Dissatisfaction  of  the 
men— Marches  to  Ottawa— Army  discharged— New  call  for  volunteers— Volunteer 
regiment  left  as  a  guard  of  the  frontiers — Col.  Jacob  Fry — Capt.  Snyder— Battle 
with  the  Indians— Bravery  of  Gen.  Whiteside— Gen.  Semple  and  Capt.  Snyder — 
Indian  murders — St.  Vrain  and  others — Siege  of  Apple-river  Fort — Col.  Strode — 
Galena— Martial  law  there— Gen.  Dodge's  successful  attack— Capt.  Stephenson— 
Martial  spirit  of  the  Indians — Major  Dement — Defence  of  Kellogg's  Grove — Gen. 
Posey's  march— Gen.  Alexander — Gen.  Atkinson— Gen.  Henry — March  up  Rock 
river — Turtle  village — Burnt  village — Lake  Keshkonong — Search  for  the  Indians 
— Two  regular  soldiers  Bred  on — Expedition  to  the  "trembling  lands" — Army  dis- 
persed in  search  of  provisions 102 


CHAPTER  V. 

Gen.  Posey  marches  to  Fort  Hamilton — Gens.  Henry  and  Alexander,  and  Major  Dodge, 
to  Fort  Winnebago — Gen.  Atkinson  remained  behind  to  build  a  fort — Description  of 
the  country  and  the  rivers  at  Fort  Winnebago — Gen.  Henry  informed  as  to  the  posi- 
tion of  Black  Hawk — Council  of  war — Agreement  to  violate  orders  and  march  after 
the  Indians — Alexander's  men  refuse  to  march — Dodge's  horses  broke  down — Ar- 
rival of  Craig's  company — Protest  of  officers  and  signs  of  mutiny — Put  down  by 
Gen.  Henry — His  character  as  a  military  man — March  for  Rock  river — Description 
of  Rock  river — March  for  Cranberry  lake — Express  to  Gen.  Atkinson — Discovery 
of  the  retreat  of  Black  Hawk  to  the  Wisconsin — Confession  of  the  Winnebagoes 
— March  for  the  Wisconsin — Thunder  storm — Privations  of  the  men — Arrival  at 
the  four  lakes — False  alarm — Description  of  the  four  lakes — Gen.  Ewing  and  the 
spies — Major  Dodge — Ardor  of  the  men — Come  close  upon  the  Indians — Battle  of 
the  Wisconsin  heights — Defeat  of  the  Indians — Their  retreat  across  the  river — 
Reasons  why  Gen.  Henry  and  the  Illinois  volunteers  never  received  credit  abroad 
for  what  they  deserved— Gen.  Henry's  death — His  singular  modesty — Return  of 
the  troops  to  the  Blue  Mounds— Bad  treatment  of  Henry  and  his  brigade  by  Gen. 


CONTENTS.  ix 

,       .     1.  PAGE 

Atkinson — Gen.  Atkinson  pursues  the  Indians  across  the  Wisconsin— Order  of 
march — Henry's  men  put  in  charge  of  the  baggage — They  resent,  but  submit — 
Gen.  Atkinson  in  front  decoyed  by  the  Indians— Drawn  off  on  a  false  scent — Henry 
advances  on  the  main  trail—  Comes  upon  the  main  body  of  the  Indians,  and  again 
defeats  them  before  Gen.  Atkinson  arrived  with  the  rest  of  the  army — Retreat  of 
Black  Hawk  Indians — Sent  in  pursuit  of  him — The  one-eyed  Decori — Capture  of 
Black  Hawk  and  the  Prophet— Description  of  the  Prophet — Indian  speeches — 
Gen.  Scott— Discharge  of  the  volunteers— Treaty  of  peace — Black  Hawk  and  other 
prisoners  taken  to  Washington — Makes  the  tour  of  the  Union,  and  are  returned  to 
their  own  country,  west  of  the  Mississippi 136 


CHAPTER  VI. 

First  efforts  for  a  Railroad  system — Central  Railroad— Impeachment  of  Judge  Smith 
— Benjamin  Mills — Other  efforts  to  impeach  judges — Effect  on  the  public  mind — 
Election  of  Governor — Gov.  Duncan — Creation  of  a  new  State  Bank— Conrad  Will 
— Means  of  passing  its  charter — Road  tax — Hooking  timber — Preachers  employed 
to  preach  against  trespasses — Veto  power — Banking  in  Illinois — Increase  of  the 
Bank  Stock — Stock  readily  taken — Intrigues  of  the  subscribers— State  Bank  goes 
into  the  hands  of  Thomas  Mather  and  his  friends— Effort  to  build  up  Alton— The 
Lead  trade— ^Unfortunate  speculations — Real  estate  fund — Hostility  of  the  Demo- 
crats—Illinois and  Michigan  canal — George  Forquer's  report — Bill  to  borrow  mo- 
ney— Passed  with  an  amendment  to  borrow  on  the  credit  of  canal  lands — Great 
speculation  in  1835-'6 — Internal  Improvement  system — Means  of  passing  it — Cal- 
culations of  its  funds — Election  of  Board  of  Public  Works — Bank  suspensions,  ne- 
gotiations—Election of  Governor  in  1838 — Thomas  Corlin — Cyrus  Edwards — Max- 
im of  politicians — Explosion  of  the  Internal  Improvement  system — Presidential 
election  of  1840 — Further  history  of  parties — Work  on  the  canal — Payment  of  in- 
terest—Mr.  Cavarly's  bill 166 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Reform  of  the  Supreme  Court — Chief  Justice  Wilson— Justices  Lockwood  and  Brown 
— Secretary  of  State  and  alien  questions — Alexander  P.  Field — John  A.  McClernand 
— Decision  of  the  Supreme  Court — Popular  excitement— Decision  of  a  Circuit  Judge 
on  the  alien  question — Commotion  among  the  Democrats — Suspicions  of  the  Su- 
preme Court— Mode  of  deciding  political  questions — Mode  of  reforming  the  Court 
— Violence  of  the  measure — Reluctance  of  some  Democrats — Obstinacy  of  others 
— How  a  polilician  must  work  in  a  party— Judge  Douglass'  speech  in  the  lobby — 
Evasive  decision  of  the  Court— Judge  Smith's  intrigues  and  character — Passage  of 
the  bill— Motives  of  both  parties— Prejudice  against  the  Supreme  Court — Moral 
power  with  the  people  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  and  Circuit  Courts — Break- 
ing of  the  banks — Causes  which  lead  to  it — Bank  suspensions — Power  of  the  State 
Bank  over  the  Legislature — Special  session — Struggle  to  forfeit  the  Bank  Charters 
— Whigs  secede — Call  of  the  House— Jumping  out  of  the  windows — Democratic 
victory — Thrown  away  before  the  end  of  the  session — New  suspensions — Small  bills 
—Fierceness  of  parties  against  each  other — Views  of  both  parties  concerning  bank- 
ing, and  of  each  other 


CHAPTER  VHI. 

Progress  of  settlements— Colleges—  Education— Society— Religion— Literature— John 
M.  Peck— James  Hall— John  Russell— Newspapers— Effects  of  speculation— Plenty 
of  money— Credit— Debts— Usury— High  rates  of  interest— History  of  mobs— Alton 
— Mob — Lovejoy — Abolitionists — Mobs  in  Pope  county — Mobs  in  the  north — Ogle 
county  mob — Cause  of  mobs  in  free  countries — Joe  Smith — Origin  of  the  Mormons 
—Their  settlement  iu  Missouri— Troubles  there— Settlemnnt  in  Ohio— Kirtland 


*•      ^t       » 

L  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Bank — Mormons  return  to  Missouri — Mormon  war  there — Expulsion  from  Mis- 
souri—Settlement of  the  Mormons  in  Illinois— Politics  of  the  Mormons— Martin 
Van  Buren — Henry  Clay — John  J.  Stuart — Dr.  Bennett — Senator  Little — Stephen 
A.  Douglass — Mormon  Charters — Nauvoo  Legion — Popular  clamor  against  the 
Mormons — Arrest  of  Joe  Smith — Trial  before  Judge  Douglass— Nomination  of  Mr. 
Snyder  as  the  democratic  candidate  for  Governor— Go  v.  Duncan  again  a  candidate 
— The  Mormons  declare  for  the  Democrats — Gov.  Duucan  attacks  the  Mormons 
and  the  Mormon  Charters — Death  of  Snyder — His  character — Nomination  of  the 
author  in  his  place — Reasons  for  this  nomination — Further  examination  into  the 
practical  operations  of  government— Election  of  the  author — The  Governor,  Audi- 
tor, and  Treasurer  forbid  the  receipt  of  Bank  paper  for  Taxes— Condition  of  the 
State  in  184-2 228 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Character  of  the  people — North  and  South — Causes  of  discord— Principle  upon  which 
elections  were  made — Character  of  candidates— Reasons  for  preference — Further 
maxims  of  politicians — John  Grammar — Want  of  unity  in  the  democratic  party — 
Want  of  great  leaders — Members  of  the  Legislature — Legislative  elections — Neg- 
lect of  other  business — Love  of  popularity — Account  of  lobby  members — Their 
motives  and  influence — Professional  politicians — Ultraists  and  "  Milk  and  water 
men"  tending  to  repudiation — Plans  for  public  relief — Illinois  Canal — Justus  But- 
terfleld— Michael  Ryan— Arthur  Bronson— Compromise  with  the  Banks— Proposed 
repeal  of  their  Charters — Gov.  Carlin's  message — Arguments  for  compromise  and 
for  repeal— Ayes  and  Noes  in  the  House^ John  A.  McClernand— Lyman  Trumbull 
— James  Shields — Feuds  among  politicians  growing  out  of  the  appointment  of 
Secretary  of  State— Amalgamation  of  the  co-ordinate  branches  of  government — 
Opposition  to  the  Compromise  Bill  in  the  Senate— Character  of  the  leader  of  this 
opposition — Removal  of  Trumbull  from  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State — Humbug 
set  off  against  humbug— Improvement  of  public  affairs— Execution  laws ;  debtor 
and  creditor 259 


CHAPTER  X. 

Mormons — New  warrant  for  the  arrest  of  Joe  Smith — Tried  before  Judge  Pope — In- 
trigues of  the  Whigs— The  Mormons  determine  to  vote  for  Whig  candidates  for 
Congress — Cyrus  Walker — Joseph  P.  Hoge — Dr.  Bennett — Prejudices  against  the 
Mormons— New  demand  for  the  arrest  of  Joe  Smith— Arrest  and  discharge  by  the 
Municipal  Court — Walker's  speech — Walker's  and  Hoge's  opinion — Mormons  al- 
ways prefer  bad  advice — Demand  for  a  call  of  the  Militia— Reasons  for  not  calling 
the'm — Intrigues  of  the  Democrats — Backinstos— Hiram  Smith — William  Law — 
Revelation  in  favor  of  Hoge— Joe  Smith's  speech— Hoge  elected — Indignation  of 
the  Whigs — Determination  to  expel  the  Mormons — Stephen  A.  Douglass — City  or- 
dinances—Insolence of  the  Mormons— Joe  Smith  a  candidate  for  President — Con- 
ceives the  idea  of  making  himself  a  Prince — Danite  band — Spiritual  wives — At- 
tempt on  William  Law's  wife — Tyranny  of  Joe  Smith— Opposition  to  him—"  Nau- 
voo Expositor" — Trial  of  the  press  as  a  nuisance — Its  destruction — Secession  of  the 
refractory  Mormons — Warrant  for  Joe  Smith  and  Common  Council — Their  arrest 
and  discharge  by  the  Municipal  Court — Committee  of  anti-Mormons — Journey  to 
Carthage — Militia  assembled — Complaints  against  the  Mormons — Cause  of  popular 
fury — False  reports  and  camp  news — Pledge  of  the  troops  to  protect  the  prisoners 
— Martial  law— Conduct  of  a  Constable  and  Civil  Posse — Council  of  officers — The 
great  flood  of  1841— Surrender  of  Joe  Smith  and  the  Common  Council — Warrant 
for  treason — Commitment  of  Joe  and  Hiram  Smith — Preparations  to  march  into 
Nauvoo — Council  of  officers — Militia  disbanded — Journey  to  Nauvoo— Guard  left 
for  the  protection  of  the  prisoners — Further  precautions — The  leading  anti-Mor- 
mons by  false  reports  undermine  the  Governor's  influence— Governor's  speech  in 
Nauvoo— Vole  ot  the  Mormons— News  of  the  death  of  the  Smiths— Preparation 
for  defence  of  the  country — Mischievous  influence  of  the  press 313 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  XI. 

PAGE 

Account  of  the  assassination  of  the  Smiths— Done  by  the  forces  at  AVaraw — Treach- 
ery of  the  Carthage  Greys — Franklin  A.  Worrell — Attack  on  the  Jail — Murder  of 
Joe  and  Hiram  Smith— Character  of  Joe  Smith— Character  of  the  leading  Mormons 
— Character  of  the  Mormon  people— Affairs  of  the  Church — Sidney  Rigdon's  proph- 
ecies—The Twelve  Apostles— Triumph  of  the  Twelve— Increase  of  Mormonism — 
Causes  of  it — Gov.  Ford  and  Herod  and  Pilate — The  Mormons  quit  preaching  to 
the  Gentiles — Character  of  their  preaching — Increased  hostility  of  the  "  Saints" — 
Determination  to  expel  the  Mormons — Both  parties  ready  to  set  aside  free  govern- 
ment—Natural inclination  to  despotism— Presidential  election  of  1844 — Infatuation 
of  the  people— State  election — Col.  Taylor's  visit  to  the  Mormons  induces  them  to 
vote  the  democratic  ticket— The  fault  laid  on  the  Governor— Fresh  determination 
to  expel  the  Mormons — Conduct  of  the  Whig  press — Pusillanimity  of  politicians — 
Gen.  Hardin— Col.  Baker — Col.  Wealherford— Col.  Merriman— Anti-Mormon  wolf- 
hunt — Military  expedition  to  Hancock — Militia  infected  with  an'i-Mormonism — 
Surrender  of  two  persons  accused  of  the  Murder — Terms  of  surrender  arranged  by 
Col.  Baker— Incompetency  of  a  Mililia  force  in  such  cases— Prosecution  of  the  mur- 
derers— Riotous  trials — Constitution  in  relation  to  changes  of  venue — Trial  of  the 
Mormons  for  destroying  the  press— Both  parlies  get  a  Jury  to  suit  them— All  ac- 
quitted— Anarchy  in  Hancock 353 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Canal  Negotiations— Appointment  of  Oakley  and  Ryan  to  go  tf  Europe-^Factious- 
ness  of  the  letter-writers  and  newspapers— Proceedings  of  ihe  Commissioners- 
David  Leavitt— Meeting  of  American  Bond-hoklers— Journey  to  Europe— Condi- 
tional agreement  there — Appointment  of  Gov.  Davis  and  Capt.  Swift  to  examine 
and  report  on  the  Canal— Gov.  Davis  attacked  by  the  Globe  newspaper— Ryan's 
answer  and  attack  on  the  Globe— Favorable  Report— Ryan's  second  trip  to  Europe 
— Gov.  Davis  sent  for — Failure  of  the  negotiation — Ryan's  attack  on  Gov.  Davis — 
Letter  from  Baring,  Brothers  &  Oo.  to  Ryan— Letter  of  Wm.  S.  Wait,  Esq.,  against 
taxation— Answer  thereto— Visit  of  Mr.  Leavitt  and  Col.  Oakley  to  Europe— New 
negotiations  successful — Opposition  to  the  Governor  likely  to  defeat  the  Canal — 
Nature  of  this  opposition — How  to  get  up  an  opposition  to  any  Administration — 
Scandalous  conduct  of  a  Committee  of  Investigation — Trumbull  and  others— Con- 
duct of  the  opposition — All  their  projects  defeated — Visit  of  Gov.  Davis  and  Mr. 
Leavitt  to  Springfield— Jealousy  of  the  Legislature  against  monied  men  and  foreign 
influence — They  are  well  received — Propositions  of  the  public  creditors — Opposi- 
tion arrayed — Miserable  intrigues  of  George  T.  M.  Davis  and  other  Whigs — Patri- 
otic conduct  of  Judge  Logan  and  other  Whigs— North  and  South  again — Messrs. 
Strong,  Adams,  Janney,  and  Dunlap— The  Canal  Bill  defeated  in  the  Senate— Talk 
of  bribery— Vote  reconsidered  and  divided— Good  management  of  Senator  Kil- 
patrick — The  Canal  Bill  passed — The  money  for  the  Canal  obtained — Election  and 
organization  of  the  Board  of  Trustees— Rate  of  Interest  reduced  to  six  per  cent.— 
Repeal  of  the  Mormon  Charters — Resolution  calling  on  the  Governor  and  Judges 
to  relinquish  their  Salaries— The  Governor's  answer — Mistaken  notions  of  Econo- 
my—Buncomb  resolutions  and  speeches  on  this  subject— Shawneetown  Bank- 
Conditional  contract  with  that  Institution— Dr.  Anderson— The  true  art  of  riding 
hobbies 370 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  city  of  Nauroo— The  Temple— New  causes  of  quarrel— The  "  Oneness'1''— Anti- 
Mormon  meeting  fired  at  by  themselves— Character  of  the  anti-Mormons— New 
mobs— House  burning— Sheriff's  posse— Backinstus  —  Plundering— McBratney— 
Death  of  Worrell— Danbeneyer— Durfee— Trial  of  the  Sheriff  for  murder— Gen. 
Hardiu  sent  over  with  500  men— Stops  the  disorders  on  both  sides— Autl  Mormon 
Convention— The  Mormons  agree  to  leave  the  State— Maj.  Warren  with  two  com- 
panies left  as  a  Guard— Good  conduct  of  Major  Warren— Indictments  against  the 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

PAGI 

Twelve  Apostles  for  counterfeiting — Exodus  of  the  Mormons — Anti-Mormons  anx- 
ious to  expel  the  few  that  were  left — Cause  of  a  new  quarrel — Writs  sworn  out — 
Old  trick  of  calling  the  posse— The  matter  adjusted — Mormon  vote  in  1846— New 
excitements — New  writs  sworn  out — The  posse  again — The  new  citizens  petition 
for  protection— Order  to  Major  Parker—Order  to  Mr.  Brayman— Treaty  between 
the  parlies — Not  agreed  to  by  the  Anti-Mormons — Mr.  Brayman's  letter — James 
W.  Singleton — Thomas  S.  Brockman— Order  to  Major  Flood — His  proceedings 
under  it— Numbers  of  each  party— Battles— Not  many  hurt — The  Mormons  sur- 
.  render  the  City — Triumphant  entry  of  the  anti-Mormons — Their  brutal  conduct — 
Sufferings  of  the  Mormons — Excitement  against  the  anti-Mormons — Moderate  men 
not  to  be  relied  on  in  times  of  excitement — Difficulties  of  the  Executive — Expedi- 
tion to  Nauvoo — The  anti-Mormon  posse  dispersed — Violence  of  the  anti-Mormons 
against  the  Governor — Anti-Mormon  meetings— Their  resolutions— Anti-Mormon 
Committee  of  rogues  and  blackguards— The  Irish  Justice  and  Constable — Capt.  Al- 
len's expedition  to  Carthage — Major  Webber— Attempts  to  arrest  a  Spy— Writs 
sworn  out  to  arrest  him  and  Capt.  Allen — The  old  trick  of  the  posse  again— Insta- 
bility of  popular  feeling— No  disposition  anywhere  to  assist,  but  a  disposition 
everywhere  to  censure  government,  for  not  performing  impossibilities— Popular 
notions  of  Martial  Law— Like  master  like  man — Anarchy  and  despotism— Lib- 
erty and  slavery 403 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Riots  in  Massac  county  in  1846— Robbery  in  Pope  county— The  regulators— Their  pro- 
ceedings—Arrests made  by  them^The  torture  and  confession  of  their  prisoners — 
The  rogues  vote  for  the  county  officers  of  Massac  in  1846— Extorted  and  bribed 
evidence  to  implicate  the  sheriff  and  others,  by  the  opposing  candidates— The  sher- 
iff and  others  ordered  to  leave  the  county— Many  whipped,  tarred  and  feathered, 
and  some  drowned— Arrest  of  the  rioters— They"  are  rescued  by  the  regulators- 
Judge  Scales'  charge  to  the  grand  jury— Indictments  against  the  regulators — 
Threats  to  lynch  the  judge  and  the  grand  jury— Order  to  Dr.  Gibbs,  and  reason 
for  such  an  order— His  proceedings  under  it— The  Militia  refuse  to  turn  out — In- 
efficiency of  well-disposed  moderate  men  in  such  times— A  few  bold,  violent  men 
can  govern  a  county,  and  how  they  do  it— The  reasons  why  the  Militia  would  not 
turn  out— Attack  on  old  Mathis,  his  wife  shot,  he  is  carried  away,  supposed  to 
have  been  murdered — The  regulators  arrested,  given  up  by  tb«  sheriff,  prisoners 
taken  to  Kentucky— Some  of  them  drowned— Proceedings  of  the  new  Governor 
and  the  Legislature,  then  in  session — District  Courts  provided  to  evade  the  Consti- 
tution against  changes  of  the  venue  in  criminal  cases — The  disturbances  die  away 
of  themselves— The  situation  in  1842  compared  with  its  condition  in  December, 
1846.... .437 


I 

TO   THE   PUBLIC, 

THE  author  of  this  history  has  lived  in  Illinois  from 
the  year  1804  up  to  this  time  ;  he  attended  the  first  ses- 
sion of  the  Legislature  under  the  State  government,  at 
Kaskaskia,  in  18 18-' 19  ;  and  has  heen  present  at  every 
session  from  1825  up  to  1847.  He  has  not  only  had  the 
means  of  becoming  acquainted  with  events  and  results, 
but  with  the  characters  and  motives  of  those  who  were 
the  most  active  in  bringing  them  about,  which  is  the 
hidden  soul  and  most  instructive  part  of  history.  The 
events  of  such  a  government  as  that  of  Illinois,  and  the 
men  of  its  history,  must  necessarily  be  matters  of  small 
interest  in  themselves.  But  the  author  has  been  encour- 
aged to  give  some  account  of  them  by  remembering 
that  history  is  only  philosophy  teaching  by  examples  ; 
and  may,  possibly,  teach  by  small  as  well  as  large  ones. 
Observation  of  the  curious  habits  of  small  insects  has 
thrown  its  light  upon  science,  as  much  as  the  dissection 
of  the  elephant.  Therefore,  if  any  one  is  curious  to  see 
what  very  great  things  may  be  illustrated  by  very  small 
matters,  this  book  will  give  him  some  aid. 


TO  THE   PUBLIC. 

The  author  has  written  about  small  events  and  little 
men  for  two  reasons :  first,  there  was  nothing  else  in  the 
history  of  Illinois  to  write  about ;  secondly,  these  small 
matters  seemed  besfc  calculated  to  illustrate  what  he 
wanted  to  promulgate  to  the  people.  The  historical 
events  and  personages  herein  recorded  and  described,  are 
related  and  delineated  gravely  and  truthfully ;  and  by 
no  means  in  a  style  of  exaggeration,  caricature,  or  ro- 
mance, after  the  fashion  of  Knickerbocker's  amusing 
history  of  New  York ;  but  like  a  tale  of  romance,  they 
are  merely  made  a  kind  of  thread  upon  which  to  string 
the  author's  speculations ;  being  his  real,  true,  and  genu- 
ine views,  entertained  as  a  man,  not  as  a  politician,  con- 
cerning the  practical  operation  of  republican  government 
and  the  machinery  party,  in  the  new  States  of  the  West. 
He  has  not  ventured  to  call  his  book  a  history,  for  the 
reason  that  much  heavy  lumbering  matter,  necessary  to 
constitute  it  a  complete  history,  but  of  no  interest  to  the 
general  reader,  has  been  omitted.  Indeed,  every  history 
is  apt  to  contain  much  matter  not  only  tiresome  to  read, 
but  mischievous  to  be  remembered  ;  and  it  is  often  the 
unprofitable  task  of  the  antiquarian  to  busy  himself  in 
raking  and  carefully  saving  from  oblivion  some  stupid 
or  mischievous  piece  of  knowledge,  which  the  good 
sense  of  the  cotemporary  generation  of  mankind  had 
made  them  forget. 


TO  THE   PUBLIC.  XV 

The  account  of  our  very  unimportant  mobs  and  wars, 
and  particularly  the  Mormon  wars, — in  which  the  au- 
thor had  the  misfortune  to  figure  in  a  small  way  him- 
self,— is  here  introduced,  with  the  single  remark,  that 
little  events  are  recorded  with  a  minuteness  and  particu- 
larity which,  it  is  hoped,  will  not  tire,  but  will  certainly 
astonish  the  reader,  until  he  sees  the  great  principles 
which  they  illustrate.  The  author  has  earnestly  endeav- 
ored to  be  as  faithful  and  impartial  as  he  well  could, 
considering  that  he  was  himself  an  actor  in  some  of  the 
scenes  described.  For  the  history  of  the  last  four  years, 
embracing  the  term  of  his  own  administration  of  the 
State  government,  the  most  difficult  period  of  our  his- 
tory, he  must  bespeak  some  forbearance.  The  internal 
improvement  system,  the  banks,  the  great  plenty  of 
money,  had  made  every  one  morally  drunk.  The  fail- 
ure of  all  these  brought  about  a  sobering  process,  which 
just  began  when  the  author  came  into  office.  The  dif- 
ferent modes  of  relief  for  unparalleled  calamity,  brought 
about  by  unparalleled  folly,  which  were  proposed  ;  the 
hideous  doctrine  of  repudiation,  and  its  apposite  of  in- 
creasing the  taxes  to  pay  our  just  debts  ;  the  everlasting 
intrigues  of  politicians  with  the  Mormons ;  the  serious 
disturbances  and  mobs  which  these  lead  to  ;  and  the 
strife  between  the  north  and  the  south  about  the  canal, 
and  their  contests  for  power,  were  difficult  subjects  to 


XVI  TO  THE   PUBLIC. 

f* 

deal  with.  The  author  aimed  to  act  positively,  and  not 
negatively,  in  all  these  matters,  which  brought  him  into 
fierce  collision  with  many  prominent  men.  He  will  go 
down  to  the  grave  satisfied,  in  his  own  mind,  that  he 
was  right,  and  they  wrong  ;  and  therefore  it  may  be, 
that  he  has  not  spoken  so  flatteringly  of  some  of  them 
as  they  may  have  wished.  But  he  has  set  nothing 
down  in  malice.  It  is  believed  that  many  public  men 
in  Illinois  aim  to  succeed  only  for  the  present,  and  have 
acted  their  parts,  with  no  idea  of  being  responsible  to 
history  ;  and  of  course  they  have  acted  much  worse  than 
they  would  have  done,  had  they  dreamed  that  history 
some  time  or  other  would  record  their  selfish  projects, 
and  hand  them  down  to  another  age.  They  were  en- 
couraged, by  their  insignificance,  to  hope  for  oblivion  ; 
and  it  is,  perhaps,  after  all,  not  very  fair  to  take  them 
by  surprise,  by  recording  their  miserable  conduct,  giving 
a  small  immortality  to  their  littleness. 

In  all  those  matters  in  which  the  author  has  figured 
personally,  it  will  be  some  relief  to  the  reader  to  find, 
that  he  has  not  attempted  to  blow  himself  up  into  a 
great  man.  He  has  no  vanity  of  that  sort ;  and  no  one 
thinks  more  humbly  of  him  than  he  does  of  himself. 
If  he  has  been  solicitous  about  anything  concerning 
himself,  it  has  been  to  be  considered  "  a  well-meaning 
sort  of  person  ;"  though  he  knows  that  this,  of  all  oth- 


TO  THE  PUBLIC.  XVU. 

A  • 

ers,  is  the  most  uncommon  character  in  public  life,  and 

is  the  most  despised  by  your  men  of  rampant  ambition. 
Insignificant  as  he  may  be,  yet,  during  his  public  life, 
many  volumes  of  billingsgate,  in  the  newspaper  style, 
have  been  written  against  him  ;  but  he  has  all  the  time 
had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  his  own  errors  and  im- 
perfections better  than  did  his  revilers.  And,  like  an 
Indian  warrior  about  to  be  tortured,  he  could  have  point- 
ed out  vulnerable  places  and  modes  of  infliction  which 
even  the  active,  keen  eye  of  malice  itself  failed  to  dis- 
cover. He  has  effectually  abandoned  all  aim  to  succeed 
in  public  life  in  the  future,  having  learned  by  long  ex- 
perience that  in  the  pursuit  of  public  honors  "  the  play 
is  not  worth  the  candle."  He  will  therefore  but  little 
regard  malicious  criticisms  which  may  be  the  effect  of 
the  remains  of  bad  feelings  excited  by  former  contests  ; 
being  assured  that  no  such  criticisms  can  in  any  wise 
affect  injuriously  any  of  his  plans  for  the  future. 

THE  AUTHOR. 
PBOEIA,  Illinois,  April  12,  1847. 


HISTORY   OF   ILLINOIS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

• 

Petition  of  the  Territorial  Legislature  to  Congress  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union — Bill 
reported  by  Judge  Pope,  the  territorial  Delegate — Amendments  proposed  by  him — 
Boundaries  of  the  State  enlarged— Ordinance  of  1787 — Claim  of  Wisconsin  to  the 
fourteen  northern  counties— Reasons  for  extending  the  boundaries— Call  of  a  Con- 
vention — Constitution  adopted — E.  K.  Kane — Petition  of  the  Covenanters — Organi- 
zation of  the  State  Government — Governor  Bond  recommends  the  Canal  to  Lake 
Michigan — Judge  Foster— Judge  Thomas — Legislature  of  1819— Code  of  laws— B^- 
moval  of  the  Seat  of  Government  to  Vandalia— Origin  of  the  name  Vandalia— Char- 
acter of  the  people — Notice  of  the  French  villages  and  of  the  early  American  set- 
tlers—Schools, learned  professions— The  early  preachers— Pursuits  and  business  of 
the  people — Their  ingenuity— Anecdote  of  James  Lemon — Commerce — Money — 
Speculation— Banks  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky — General  indebtedness — Money  crisis — 
Creation  of  the  State  Bank  of  1821— Its  history— Ool.  Menard— John  M'Lean— Judge 
Young— First  duel— Judge  Lockwood. 

IN  the  month  of  January,  1818,  a  petition  was  received  from 
the  territorial  Legislature  of  Illinois  by  Nathaniel  Pope,  the 
delegate  in  Congress,  (now  district  judge,)  praying  for  the  ad- 
mission of  the  territory  into  the  Union  as  an  independent  State. 
Judge  Pope  immediately  brought  the  subject  before  Congress ; 
and  at  an  early  day  thereafter  was  instructed,  by  the  proper 
committee,  to  report  a  bill  in  pursuance  of  the  petition.  Ow- 
ing to  the  great  amount  of  business  which  had  matured,  this 
bill  was  not  acted  on  until  the  month  of  April,  when  it  became 
a  law,  with  certain  amendments  proposed  by  Judge  Pope. 
The  amendments  were,  1st,  to  extend  the  northern  boundary  of 
the  new  State  to  the  parallel  of  42°  30'  north  latitude ;  and, 


20  KtSTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

2d,  to  apply  the  three  per  cent,  fund,  arising  from  the  sales  of 
the  public  lands,  to  the  encouragement  of  learning,  instead  of 
the  making  of  roads  leading  to  the  State,  as  had  been  the  case 
'  on  the  admission  of  Ohio  and  Indiana.  These  important  changes 
were  proposed  and  carried  through  both  houses  of  Congress 
by  Judge  Pope,  upon  his  own  responsibility.  The  territorial 
Legislature  had  not  petitioned  for  them  ;  no  one  at  that  time 
having  suggested  or  requested  the  making  of  them  ;  but  they 
met  the  unqualified  approbation  of  the  people  of  Illinois. 

By  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  there  were  to  be  not  less  than 
three,  nor  more  than  five  States  in  the  territory  north-west  of 
the  Ohio  river.  The  boundaries  of  these  States  were  defined 
by  that  law.  The  three  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois 
were  to  include  the  whole  territory,  and  were  to  be  bounded  by 
the  British  possessions  in  Canada  on  the  north.  But  Congress 
reserved  the  power,  if  they  thereafter  should  find  it  expedient, 
to  form  one  or  two  States  in  that  part  of  the  territory  which 
lies  north  of  an  east  and  west  line  drawn  through  the  southerly 
bend  of  Lake  Michigan.  That  line,  it  was  generally  supposed, 
was  to  be  the  north  boundary  of  Illinois.  Judge  Pope,  seeing 
that  the  port  of  Chicago  was  north  of  that  line,  and  would  be 
excluded  by  it  from  the  State ;  and  that  the  Illinois  and  Michi- 
gan canal  (which  was  then  contemplated)  would  issue  from 
Chicago,  to  connect  the  great  northern  lakes  with  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  thus  be  partly  within  and  partly  without  the  State  of 
Dlinois,  was  thereby  led  to  a  critical  examination  of  the  Ordi- 
nance, which  resulted  in  a  clear  and  satisfactory  conviction, 
that  it  was  competent  for  Congress  to  extend  the  boundaries 
of  the  new  State  as  far  north  as  they  pleased  ;  and  he  found 
no  difficulty  in  convincing  others  of  the  correctness  of  his  views. 

As  it  is  now  understood  that  the  new  State  of  Wisconsin 
puts  in  a  claim  under  the  Ordinance  to  the  fourteen  northern 
counties  in  Illinois,  embracing  the  richest  and  most  populous 
part  of  the  State,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  examine  a  little 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  21 

whether  Judge  Pope  and  the  Congress  of  1818  were  right  in 
their  conclusions. 

It  appears  that  Congress  retained  the  power,  under  the  Ordi- 
nance, if  they  should  thereafter  deem  it  expedient,  to  establish  - 
a  State  north  of  Illinois,  in  that  part  of  the  north-western  ter- 
ritory which  lies  north  of  the  parallel  running  through  the 
southern  bend  of  the  Lake.  Upon  this  provision  is  founded 
the  claim  of  Wisconsin.  But  there  is  nothing  in  the  Ordinance 
requiring  such  additional  State  to  be  formed  of  the  territory 
north  of  that  line.  Another  State  might  be  formed  in  that  dis- 
trict of  country,  but  not  o/it ;  it  need  not  necessarily  include 
the  whole.  By  extending  the  limits  of  Illinois  north  of  the 
disputed  line,  Congress  still  had  the  power  to  make  a  new  State 
in  that  district  of  country  north  of  it,  not  including  the  portion 
given  to  Illinois.  But  the  fallacy  of  the  claim  for  Wisconsin 
is  further  apparent  from  the  facts,  that  the  Ordinance  establish- 
ed the  northern  limits  of  Illinois  to  extend  to  the  British  pos- 
sessions in  Canada,  in  other  words,  to  the  northern  boundary 
of  the  United  States  ;  that  the  creation  of  a  new  State  north 
of  it,  was  made  to  depend  upon  the  subsequent  discretion  of 
Congress,  and  upon  their  .ideas  of  expediency.  Undoubtedly, 
Illinois  could  have  been  limited  to  the  southern  bend  of  Lake 
Michigan.  But  Congress  has  never,  as  yet,  established  that  line ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  has  established  one  upwards  of  fifty 
miles  north  of  it,  which  line  so  established  by  Congress,  the 
people  of  Wisconsin  say  is  void,  as  being  against  the  Ordi- 
nance. If  we  take  the  ground  assumed  by  Wisconsin  as  the 
true  one,  and  admit  that  the  line  of  42°  30'  is  void,  as  being 
against  the  Ordinance,  then  it  is  plain  that  there  is  no  northern 
limit  to  Illinois,  except  the  British  possessions  in  Canada ;  thus 
making  Illinois  include  all  Wisconsin.  If  the  people  of  Wis- 
consin can  show  that  the  line  of  42°  30'  is  void,  they  do  not  es- 
tablish any  other ;  their  line  was  not  established  by  the  Ordi- 
nance ;  that  law  merely  authorized  Congress  to  establish  it  if 


22  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

they  saw  proper  and  deemed  it  expedient.  But  Congress  has 
never  deemed  it  expedient  to  establish  it.  If,  therefore,  the 
only  line  which  Congress  ever  did  establish  is  void,  then  Dli- 
nois  cannot  be  limited  by  a  line  which  has  never  been  establish- 
ed, but  must  extend  to  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Union,  in- 
cluding all  Wisconsin.  Premises  from  which  such  arguments 
can  fairly  be  drawn,  must  necessarily  be  suicidal  to  the  claim 
of  the  new  State  of  Wisconsin,  as  they  inevitably  result  in  its 
annihilation,  and  in  extending  the  jurisdiction  of  Illinois  over 
the  whole  of  its  territory. 

But  there  were  other  and  much  more  weighty  reasons  for 
this  change  of  boundary,  which  were  ably  and  successfully  urged 
by  Judge  Pope  upon  the  attention  of  Congress.  It  was  known 
that  in  all  confederated  republics  there  was  danger  of  dissolu- 
tion. The  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi  was  filling  up  with  a 
numerous  people;  the  original  confederacy  had  already  ad- 
vanced westward  a  thousand  miles,  across  the  chain  of  moun- 
tains skirting  the  Atlantic ;  the  adjoining  States  in  the  western 
country  were  watered  by  rivers  running  from  every  point  of 
the  compass,  converging  to  a  focus  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi  at  Cairo  ;  the  waters  of  the  Ohio,  Cum- 
berland and  Tennessee  rivers,  carried  much  of  the  commerce 
of  Alabama  and  Tennessee,  all  of  Kentucky,  considerable  por- 
tions of  that  of  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York,  and  the 
greater  portion  of  the  commerce  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  down  by 
the  Point  at  Cairo,  (situate  in  the  extreme  south  of  Illinois,) 
where  it  would  be  met  by  the  commerce  to  and  from  the  lower 
Mississippi  with  all  the  States  and  territories  to  be  formed  in 
the  immense  country  on  the  Missouri,  and  extending  to  the 
head  waters  of  the  Mississippi.  Illinois  had  a  coast  of  1 50  miles 
on  the  Ohio  river,  and  nearly  as  much  on  the  Wabash ;  the 
Mississippi  was  its  western  boundary  for  the  whole  length  of 
the  State  ;  the  commerce  of  all  the  western  country  was  to  pass 
by  its  shores,  and  would  necessarily  come  to  a  focus  at  the 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  23 

mouth  of  the  Ohio,  at  a  point  within  this  State,  and  within  the 
control  of  Illinois,  if,  the  Union  being  dissolved,  she  should  see 
proper  to  control  it.  It  was  foreseen  that  none  of  the  great 
States  in  the  west  could  venture  to  aid  in  dissolving  the  Union, 
without  cultivating  a  State  situate  in  such  a  central  and  com- 
manding position. 

What  then  was  the  duty  of  the  national  government  ?  Illi- 
nois was  certain  to  be  a  great  State,  with  any  boundaries  which 
that  government  could  give.  Its  great  extent  of  territory,  its 
unrivalled  fertility  of  soil,  and  capacity  for  sustaining  a  dense 
population,  together  with  its  commanding  position,  would  in 
course  of  time  give  the  new 'State  a  very  controlling  influence 
with  her  sister  States  situate  upon  the  western  rivers,  either  in 
sustaining  the  federal  union  as  it  is,  or  in  dissolving  it,  and  es- 
tablishing new  governments.  If  left  entirely  upon  the  waters 
of  these  great  rivers,  it  was  plain  that,  in  case  of  threatened 
disruption,  the  interest  of  the  new  State  would  be  to  join  a 
southern  and  western  confederacy.  But  if  a  large  portion  of 
it  could  be  made  dependent  upon  the  commerce  and  navigation 
of  the  great  northern  lakes,  connected  as  they  are  with  the  eastern 
States,  a  rival  interest  would  be  created,  to  check  the  wish  for 
a  western  and  southern  confederacy. 

It  therefore  became  the  duty  of  the  national  government,  not 
only  to  make  Illinois  strong,  but  to  raise  an  interest  inclining 
and  binding  her  to  the  eastern  and  northern  portions  of  the 
Union.  This  could  be  done  only  through  an  interest  in  the 
lakes.  At  that  time  the  commerce  on  the  lakes  was  small,  but 
its  increase  was  confidently  expected,  and  indeed  it  has  exceeded 
all  anticipations,  and  is  yet  only  in  its  infancy.  To  accomplish 
this  object  effectually,  it  was  not  only  necessary  to  give  to  Il- 
linois the  port  of  Chicago  and  a  route  for  the  canal,  but  a  con- 
siderable coast  on  Lake  Michigan,  with  a  country  back  of  it 
sufficiently  extensive  to  contain  a  population  capable  of  exer- 
cising a  decided  influence  upon  the  councils  of  the  State. 


24  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

There  would,  therefore,  be  a  large  commerce  of  the  north, 
western,  and  central  portions  of  the  State  afloat  on  the  lakes, 
for  it  was  then  foreseen  that  the  canal  would  be  made ;  and 
this  alone  would  be  like  turning  one  of  the  many  mouths  of 
the  Mississippi  into  Lake  Michigan  at  Chicago.  A  very  large 
commerce  of  the  centre  and  south  would  be  found,  both  upon 
the  lakes  and  the  rivers.  Associations  hi  business,  in  interest, 
and  of  friendship  would  be  formed,  both  with  the  north  and 
the  south.  A  State  thus  situated,  having  such  a  decided  in- 
terest in  the  commerce,  and  in  the  preservation  of  the  whole 
confederacy,  can  never  consent  to  disunion  ;  for  the  Union  can- 
not be  dissolved  without  a  division  and  disruption  of  the  State 
itself.  These  views,  urged  by  Judge  Pope,  obtained  the  un- 
qualified assent  of  the  statesmen  of  1818  ;  and  this  feature  of 
the  bill,  for  the  admission  of  Illinois  into  the  Union,  met  the 
unanimous  approbation  of  both  houses  of  Congress. 

These  facts  and  views  are  worthy  to  be  recorded  in  history, 
as  a  standing  and  perpetual  call  upon  Illinoisians  of  every  age 
to  remember  the  great  trust  which  has  been  reposed  in  them, 
as  the  peculiar  champions  and  guardians  of  the  Union,  by  the 
great  men  and  patriot  sages  who  adorned  and  governed  this 
country  in  the  earlier  and  better  days  of  the^republic. 

In  pursuance  of  this  Act  of  Congress,  a  Convention  was  called 
hi  Illinois,  in  the  summer  of  1818,  which  formed  our  present 
Constitution.  The  principal  member  of  it  was  Elias  K.  Kane, 
late  a  senator  in  Congress  and  now  deceased,  to  whose  talents 
we  are  mostly  indebted  for  the  peculiar  features  of  the  Con- 
stitution. Mr.  Kane  was  born  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
was  bred  to  the  profession  of  the  law.  He  removed  in  early 
youth  to  Tennessee,  where  he  rambled  about  for  some  time, 
and  finally  settled  in  the  ancient  village  of  Kaskaskia,  in  Dlinois, 
about  the  year  1815,  when  he  was  about  twenty  years  of  age. 
His  talents  were  both  solid  and  brilliant.  After  being  appointed 
Secretary  of  State  under  the  new  government,  he  was  elected 


HISTORY  OF  ILLIKOIS.  25 

to  the  Legislature,  from  which  he  was  elected  and  again  re-elect- 
ed to  the  United  States  Senate.  He  died  a  member  of  that  body, 
in  the  autumn  of  1835  ;  and  in  memory  of  him  the  County  of 
Kane,  on  Fox  river,  was  named,  as  was  also  the  County  of 
Pope,  on  the  Ohio  river,  in  honor  of  Judge  Pope,  the  able  and 
faithful  delegate  in  Congress  from  the  Illinois  territory.  Dur- 
ing the  sitting  of  the  Convention  of  1818,  the  Keverend  Mr. 
Wiley  and  his  congregation,  of  a  sect  called  Covenanters,  in 
Randolph  county,  sent  in  their  petition,  asking  that  body  to 
declare  in  the  Constitution  about  to  be  made,  that  "Jesus 
Christ  was  the  head  of  the  government,  and  that  the  Holy 
Scriptures  were  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice."  It  does 
not  appear  by  the  journals  of  the  Convention  that  this  petition 
was  treated  with  any  attention  ;  wherefore  the  Covenanters  have 
never  yet  fully  recognized  the  State  government.  They  have 
looked  upon  it  as  "  an  heathen  and  unbaptized  government" 
which  denies  Christ ;  for  which  reason  they  have  constantly  re- 
fused to  work  the  roads  under  the  laws,  serve  on  juries,  hold 
any  office,  or  do  any  other  act  showing  that  they  recognize  the 
government.  For  a  long  time  they  refused  to  vote  at  the  elec- 
tions ;  and  never  did  vote  until  the  election  in  1824,  when  the 
question  was,  whether  Illinois  should  be  made  a  slave  State, 
when  they  voted  for  the  first  time,  and  unanimously  against 
slavery.  In  the  election  of  members  to  the  Convention,  the 
only  questions  made  before  the  people  were,  the  right  of  the 
constituent  to  instruct  his  representative,  and  the  introduction 
of  slavery,  which  were  debated  with  great  earnestness  during 
the  canvass. 

The  Constitution,  as  formed,  required  the  Governor  and 
Lieutenant  Governor  to  have  been  citizens  of  the  United  States 
for  thirty  years  before  their  election.  It  also  gave  power  to  the 
governor  to  nominate,  and  the  Senate  to  confirm,  all  officers 
whose  appointments  were  not  otherwise  provided  for  by  the 
Constitution  ;  the  only  exceptions  to  this  rule  being  the  judges 


26  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

of  the  supreme  and  inferior  courts,  State  treasurer,  and  public 
printer.  But  motives  of  favor  to  particular  persons,  who  were 
looked  to  to  hold  office  under  the  new  government,  induced  the 
Convention  to  make  exceptions  in  both  these  cases,  which  in 
the  case  of  appointments  to  office  in  the  hands  of  the  legislature, 
became  the  general  rule. 

Col.  Pierre  Menard,  a  Frenchman,  and  an  old  settler  in  the 
country,  was  generally  looked  to  to  fill  the  office  of  lieutenant 
governor  ;  but  as  he  had  not  been  naturalized  until  a  year  or 
so  before,  the  Convention  declared  in  a  schedule  to  the  Consti- 
tution, that  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  who  had  resided  in 
the  State  for  two  years  might  be  eligible  to  this  office. 

It  was  expected  that  Shadrach  Bond  would  be  the  first  gov- 
ernor ;  and  the  Convention  wished  to  have  Elijah  C.  Berry  for 
the  first  auditor  of  public  accounts,  but  as  it  was  believed  that 
Governor  Bond  would  not  appoint  him  to  the  office,  the  Con- 
vention again  declared  in  the  schedule  that  "  an  auditor  of  pub- 
lic accounts,  an  attorney  general,  and  such  other  officers  of  the 
State  as  may  be  necessary,  may  be  appointed  by  the  General 
Assembly."  The  Constitution,  as  it  stood,  vested  a  very  large 
appointing  power  in  the  governor ;  but  for  the  purpose  of  get- 
ting one  man  into  office,  a  total  change  was  made,  and  the 
power  vested  in  the  legislature.  It  was  for  many  years  a  ques- 
tion, what  was  an  "  officer  of  the  State."  Were  States'  attor- 
neys of  the  circuits  ?  Were  the  canal  commissioners  officers 
for  the  State  ?  The  legislature  afterwards  decided  that  all  these 
were  State  offices,  and  passed  laws  from  time  to  time,  vesting 
in  their  own  body  all  the  appointing  powers  they  could  lay 
their  hands  on.  In  this  mode  they  appointed  canal  commis- 
sioners, fund  commissioners,  commissioners  of  the  board  of 
public  works,  bank  directors  for  the  principal  banks  and  branch- 
es, canal  agents,  States'  attorneys,  and  all  sorts  of  agencies 
which  seemed  to  be  necessary.  Sometimes  such  agents  were 
appointed  by  election,  then  again  the  legislature  would  pass  a 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  27 

law  enacting  them  into  office  by  name  and  surname.  They 
contrived  to  strip  the  governor  of  all  patronage  not  positively 
secured  to  him  by  the  Constitution ;  such  as  the  appointment 
of  a  secretary  of  State,  and  the  filling  of  vacancies  during  the 
recess  of  their  sessions.  At  first  the  legislature  contented  them- 
selves with  the  power  to  elect  an  auditor  and  attorney  general. 
The  governor  appointed  all  the  States'  attorneys,  the  recorders 
of  counties,  all  State  officers  and  agents  occasionally  needed, 
and  many  minor  county  officers.  But  in  the  administration  of 
Governor  Duncan  he  was  finally  stripped  of  all  patronage,  ex- 
cept the  appointment  of  notaries  public  and  public  administra- 
tors. Sometimes  one  legislature,  feeling  pleased  with  the  gov- 
ernor, would  give  him  some  appointing  power,  whiclt  their 
successors  would  take  away,  if  they  happened  to  quarrel  with 
him.  This  constant  changing  and  shifting  of  powers,  from  one 
co-ordinate  branch  of  the  government  to  another,  which  rendered 
it  impossible  for  the  people  to  foresee  exactly  for  what  purpose 
either  the  governor  or  legislature  were  elected,  was  one  of  the 
worst  features  of  the  government.  It  led  to  innumerable  in- 
trigues and  corruptions,  and  for  a  long  time  destroyed  the  har- 
mony between  the  executive  and  legislative  departments. 
And  all  this  was  caused  by  the  Convention  of  1818,  in  the  at- 
tempt to  get  one  man  into  an  office  of  no  very  considerable 
importance. 

According  to  general  expectation,  Shadrach-Bond  was  elected 
the  first  governor,  and  commenced  his  term  of  four  years  in 
October,  1818.  Governor  Bond  was  a  native  of  Maryland, 
was  bred  a  farmer,  and  was  a  very  early  settler  amongst  the 
pioneers  of  the  Illinois  territory.  He  settled  on  a  farm  in  the 
American  Bottom,  in  Monroe  County,  near  the  Eagle  Creek. 
He  was  several  times  elected  to  the  territorial  legislature,  and 
once  a  delegate  to  represent  the  territory  in  Congress.  He  was 
also  receiver  of  public  moneys  at  Kaskaskia,  but  was  never 
elected  or  appointed  to  any  other  office  after  his  term  as  gov- 


28  HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS. 

ernor.  Indeed,  of  the  seven  first  governors  of  Illinois  only  one 
has  ever  held  any  office  since  the  expiration  of  their  respective 
terms  of  service ;  though  I  believe  they  have  all,  except  myself, 
tried  to  obtain  some  other  office.  Governor  Bond  was  a  sub- 
stantial, farmer-like  man,  of  strong,  plain  common  sense,  with 
but  little  pretensions  to  learning  or  general  information.  He 
was  a  well-made,  well-set,  sturdy  gentleman,  and  what  is  re- 
markable at  this  day,  his  first  message  to  the  legislature  con- 
tains a  strong  recommendation  in  favor  of  the  Illinois  and 
Michigan  canal.  At  that  early  day  the  people  north  of  Kas- 
kaskia,  then  the  seat  of  government,  were  northern  people,  and 
in  favor  of  northern  interests.  The  inhabited  parts  of  the  State 
then  extended  north,  a  little  above  Alton ;  and  at  that  time  the 
people  of  Randolph,  Monroe,  St.  Clair  and  Madison,  then  north- 
ern but  now  southern  counties,  were  as  anxious  for  the  canal  as 
the  people  of  Lasalle  have  been  since.  In  like  manner  when 
the  seat  of  government  was  removed,  first  to  Vandalia,  and 
afterwards  to  Springfield,  the  people  north  of  those  places,  re- 
spectively, whilst  the  seat  of  government  remained  at  them, 
were  in  favor  of  the  canal  and  northern  interests ;  but  when  re- 
moved from  Vandalia  to  Springfield,  the  northern  men  between 
Springfield  and  Vandalia  were  immediately  converted  into 
Southerners,  and  most  of  them  ever  afterwards  opposed  the 
canal.  It  seems  that  an  imaginary  east  and  west  line  will,  in 
the  imagination  of  politicians,  be  drawn  through  the  seat  of 
government,  and  all  north  of  it  will  be  north,  and  all  south  of 
it  will  be  south,  with  some  trifling  exceptions.  Governor  Bond 
died  about  the  year  1834 ;  and  for  him  was  named  the  county 
of  Bond,  lying  on  the  waters  of  Shoal  Creek. 

The  legislature  was  convened  at  Kaskaskia  in  October,  1818, 
and  organized  the  government  by  the  election  of  Joseph  Phil- 
ips to  be  chief  justice,  Thomas  C.  Brown  and  John  Reynolds, 
and  William  P.  Foster  associate  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
Judges  Brown  and  Reynolds  will  be  spoken  of  hereafter.  Phil- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  29 

ips  had  been  a  captain  in  the  regular  army,  and  was  afterwards 
appointed  secretary  of  State  of  the  territory ;  and,  being  a 
lawyer  and  a  man  of  high  order  of  talent,  was  therefore  elected 
chief  justice.  Being  afterwards  a  candidate  for  governor  and 
defeated,  he  left  the  State  in  such  disgust  as  defeat  is  apt  to 
inspire,  and  went  to  reside  in  Tennessee,  where  he  is  yet  alive. 
Foster,  who  was  elected  one  of  the  judges,  was  almost  a  total 
stranger  in  the  country.  He  was  a  great  rascal,  but  no  one 
knew  it  then,  he  having  been  a  citizen  of  the  State  only  for 
about  three  weeks  before  he  was  elected.  He  was  no  lawyer, 
never  having  either  studied  or  practised  law  ;  but  he  was  a  man 
of  winning,  polished  manners,  and  was  withal  a  very  gentle- 
manly swindler,  from  some  part  of  Virginia.  It  might  be  said 
of  him,  as  it  was  of  Lambro,  "  he  was  the  mildest  mannered 
man  that  ever  scuttled  ship  or  cut  a  throat,  with  such  true 
breeding  of  a  gentleman,  that  you  never  could  divine  his  real 
thought."  He  was  believed  to  be  a  clever  fellow,  in  the 
American  sense  of  the  phrase,  and  a  good-hearted  soul.  He 
was  assigned  to  hold  courts  in  the  circuit  on  the  Wabash; 
but  being  fearful  of  exposing  his  utter  incompetency,  he  never 
went  near  any  of  them.  In  the  course  of  one  year  he  resigned 
his  high  office,  but  took  care  first  to  pocket  his  salary,  and 
then  removed  out  of  the  State.  He  afterwards  became  a  noted 
swindler,  moving  from  city  to  city,  and  living  by  swindling 
strangers,  and  prostituting  his  daughters,  who  were  very  beau- 
tiful. 

Ninian  Edwards,  now  no  more,  and  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  who 
at  this  time  resides  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  were  elected  our  first 
senators  in  Congress.  Elias  K.  Kane  was  appointed  secretary 
of  State,  Daniel  P.  Cook  was  elected  the  first  attorney  general, 
Elijah  C.  Berry  auditor  of  public  accounts,  and  John  Thomas 
State  treasurer.  Under  the  auspices  and  guidance  of  these 
names,  was  Illinois  launched  on  her  career  of  administration, 
as  an  independent  State  of  the  American  Union.  Among  these 


30  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

gentlemen,  I  will  at  this  time  speak  of  Judge  Thomas  only. 
He  is  first  distinctly  known  when  he  resided  in  the  territory 
of  Indiana,  and  was  a  member  of  the  territorial  legislature  at 
the  time  Indiana  territory  included  all  the  Illinois  country. 
William  Biggs  and  John  Messenger,  of  St.  Clair  county,  rep- 
resented the  Illinois  country  in  that  legislature,  and  were  de- 
sirous to  obtain  a  division  of  that  territory,  and  to  erect  a 
separate  territorial  government  for  Illinois.  The  Indiana  leg- 
islature then  met  at  Vincennes,  a  town  on  the  Wabash,  for 
which  reason  it  was  long  afterwards,  by  the  vulgar,  known  by 
the  name  of  the  "  Vinsan  kgislater  ;"  and  the  laws  of  the  ter- 
ritory during  that  period  were  called  the  laws  of  the  "  Vinsan 
legislater."  The  Illinoisians  wanted  a  legislature  of  their  own 
to  meet  at  Kaskaskia,  then  vulgarly  known  by  the  name  of 
"  Kusky,"  a  corruption  and  contraction  of  the  real  name. 
Whether  the  territory  could  be  divided  or  not,  depended  upon 
the  election  of  a  delegate  to  Congress.  The  Illinoisians  were 
anxious  to  elect  one  favorable  to  a  division,  and  they  selected 
Mr.  Thomas  for  this  purpose.  But  being  determined  not  to 
be  cheated,  they  made  him  give  his  bond  to  be  in  favor  of  a 
division.  With  the  aid  of  the  Illinois  vote  and  his  own,  Mr. 
Thomas  had  a  bare  majority,  and  was  elected.  True  to  his 
pledges  and  his  bond,  Mr.  Thomas  procured  a  division  of  the 
territory,  the  erection  of  a  separate  territorial  government  for 
Illinois,  and  came  home  with  the  appointment  of  one  of  the 
judgeships  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  new  territory  for  him- 
self. Judge  Thomas  then  removed  to  Illinois,  where  he  con- 
tinued to  be  one  of  the  judges  during  the  existence  of  the  ter- 
ritory. He  was  elected  from  St.  Clair  county  a  member  of  the 
Convention  which  formed  the  Constitution,  and  had  the  honor 
to  be  chosen  president  of  that  body.  He  was  twice  elected  to 
the  United  States  Senate,  and  hi  the  year  1827  left  the  State 
to  reside  in  Ohio.  During  his  senatorial  career,  he  was  a  great 
favorite  with  William  H.  Crawford,  the  secretary  of  the  treas- 


HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS.  31 

my,  and  was  a  warm  advocate  of  Mr.  Crawford's  election  to 
the  presidency  ;  but  after  Mr.  Adams  was  declared  to  be  elected 
by  the  House  of  Representatives,  he  came  over  to  the  support 
of  Mr.  Adams'  administration.  He  was  a  large,  affable,  good- 
looking  man,  with  no  talents  as  a  public  speaker ;  but  he  was 
a  man  of  tact,  an  adroit  and  winning  manager.  It  was  a  maxim 
with  him,  that  no  man  could  be  talked  down  with  loud  and  bold 
words,  "  but  any  one  might  be  whispered  to  death." 

It  appears  by  the  journals  of  this  first  legislature  that  a 
committee  was  appointed  to  contract  for  stationery,  who  re- 
ported that  they  had  purchased  a  sufficient  stock  at  the  cost  of 
$13  50.  For  every  dollar  then  paid,  we  now  pay  hundreds 
for  the  same  articles  ;  but  this  was  in  the  days  of  real  frugality 
and  economy,  and  before  any  of  the  members  had  learned  the 
gentlemanly  art  of  laying  in,  from  the  public  stock,  a  year  or 
two's  supply  at  home.  The  assembly  having  organized  the 
State  government  and  put  it  in  motion,  adjourned,  to  meet  again 
in  the  winter  of  181 8-' 19.  At  this  adjourned  session  a  code 
of  statute  law  was  passed,  mostly  borrowed  from  the  statutes 
of  Kentucky  and  Virginia.  Upon  examining  the  laws  of  that 
day,  it  will  be  seen  that  they  are  generally  better  drawn  up 
than  those  which  were  passed  at  a  later  and  more  enlightened 
period.  The  members  were  mostly  ignorant  and  unpretending 
men ;  there  was  then  some  reverence  for  men  of  real  knowl- 
edge and  real  abilities  ;  the  world  was  not  then  filled  with  au- 
dacious and  ignorant  pretenders  ;  and  the  sensible  and  unpre- 
tending members  were  content  to  look  to  men  of  real  talents 
and  learning  to  draw  their  bills.  But  in  these  days  of  empir- 
icism and  quackery  in  all  things,  when  every  ignorant  pretender 
who  has  the  luck  to  "  break"  into  the  legislature  imagines  him- 
self to  be  a  Lycurgus  or  a  Mpses,  very  few  good  laws  have  been 
made ;  and  those  which  have,  were  drawn  by  men  of  talents 
who  were  not  members,  for  the  most  part. 

But  this  code,  as  a  whole,  did  not  stand  long.     For  many 


82  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

sessions  afterwards,  in  fact  until  the  new  revision  in  1827,  all 
the  standard  laws  were  regularly  changed  and  altered  every  two 
years,  to  suit  the  taste  and  whim  of  every  new  legislature.  For 
a  long  time  the  rage  for  amending  and  altering  was  so  great, 
that  it  was  said  to  be  a  good  thing  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  did 
not  have  to  come  before  the  Legislature ;  for  that  body  would 
be  certain  to  alter  and  amend  them,  so  that  no  one  could  tell 
what  was  or  was  not  the  word  of  God,  any  more  than  could 
be  told  what  was  or  was  not  the  law  of  the  State.  A  session 
of  the  legislature  was  like  a  great  fire  in  the  boundless  prairies 
of  the  State  ;  it  consumed  everything.  And  again,  it  was  like 
the  genial  breath  of  spring,  making  all  things  new. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  laws  of  this  first  code  was  the 
act  concerning  negroes  and  mulattoes.  It  is  to  be  observed 
that  the  ordinance  of  Congress  of  the  year  1787,  and  the  deed 
of  cession  of  the  country  from  Virginia,  were  interpreted  so  as 
to  secure  the  French  settlers  in  a  right  to  their  slaves,  and 
the  legislatures  of  the  Indiana  and  Illinois  territories  had  passed 
laws  allowing  a  qualified  introduction  of  slavery.  For  instance, 
it  had  been  enacted  that  emigrants  to  the  country  might  bring 
their  slaves  with  them,  and  if  the  slaves,  being  of  lawful  age 
to  consent,  would  go  before  the  clerk  of  a  county,  and  volun- 
tarily sign  an  indenture  to  serve  their  master  for  a  term  of 
years,  they  should  be  held  to  a  specific  performance  of  their 
contracts.  If  they  refused  to  give  such  consent,  their  masters 
might  remove  them  out  of  the  territory  in  sixty  days.  The 
children  of  such  slaves,  being  under  the  age  of  consent,  might 
be  taken  before  an  officer  and  registered  ;  and  then  they  were 
bound  by  those  laws  to  serve  their  masters  until  they  were 
thirty-two  years  old.  Such  slaves  were  then  called  indentured 
and  registered  servants  ;  the  French  negroes  were  called  slaves. 
Many  servants  and  slaves  were  held  under  these  laws,  but 
the  number  of  negroes  was  very  small,  compared  with  the  num- 
ber of  the  white  inhabitants.  Nevertheless,  this  first  legislature 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  83 

re-enacted  in  Illinois  all  the  severe  and  stringent  laws  to  be 
found  in  a  slave  State,  where  the  number  of  negroes  was  equal 
to,  or  greater  than  the  number  of  white  people,  and  where  such 
severity  might  be  necessary  to  prevent  rebellion  and  servile 
war.  For  instance,  it  was  enacted  that  no  negro  or  mulatto 
should  reside  in  the  State  until  he  had  produced  a  certificate  of 
freedom,  and  given  bond,  with  security,  for  good  behavior,  and 
not  to  become  a  county  charge.  No  person  was  to  harbor  or 
hire  a  negro  or  mulatto  who  had  not  complied  with  the  law, 
under  the  penalty  of  five  hundred  dollars  fine.  All  such  free 
negroes  were  to  cause  their  families  to  be  registered.  Every 
negro  or  mulatto  not  having  a  certificate  of  freedom,  was  to 
be  deemed  a  runaway  slave ;  was  liable  to  be  taken  up  by  any 
inhabitant ;  committed  by  a  justice  of  the  peace  ;  imprisoned 
by  the  sheriff;  advertised ;  sold  for  one  year ;  and,  if  not 
claimed  within  that  time,  was  to  be  considered  a  free  man,  un- 
less his  master  should  afterwards  reclaim  him.  Any  person 
bringing  a  negro  into  the  State,  to  set  him  free,  was  liable  to  a 
fine  of  two  hundred  dollars.  Kiots,  routs,  unlawful  assemblies, 
and  seditious  speeches  of  slaves,  were  to  be  punished  with 
stripes,  not  exceeding  thirty-nine,  at  the  discretion  of  any  jus- 
tice of  the  peace ;  also,  slaves  were  to  be  punished  with  thirty- 
five  lashes  for  being  found  ten  miles  from  home  without  a  pass 
from  their  master ;  also,  it  was  made  lawful  for  the  owner  of 
any  dwelling  or  plantation  to  give,  or  order  to  be  given,  to 
any  slave  or  servant  coming  upon  his  plantation,  ten  lashes  upon 
his  bare  back  ;  and  persons  who  should  permit  slaves  and  ser- 
vants to  assemble  for  dancing  or  revelling,  by  night  or  day. 
were  to  be  fined  twenty  dollars.  It  was  made  the  duty  of  all 
sheriffs,  coroners,  judges,  and  justices  of  the  peace,  on  view  of 
such  an  assemblage,  to  commit  the  slaves  to  jail,  and  to  order 
each  one  of  them  to  be  whipped,  not  exceeding  thirty-nine 
stripes,  on  the  bare  back,  to  be  inflicted  the  next  day,  unless 
the  same  should  be  Sunday,  and  then  on  the  next  day  after. 

2* 


34  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

In  all  cases  where  free  persons  were  punishable  by  fine  under 
the  criminal  laws  of  the  State,  servants  were  to  be  punished  by 
whipping,  at  the  rate  of  twenty  lashes  for  every  eight  dollars 
fine.  No  person  was  to  buy  of,  sell  to,  or  trade  with  a  slave  or 
servant,  without  the  consent  of  his  master ;  and  for  so  doing, 
was  to  forfeit  four  times  the  value  of  the  article  bought,  sold, 
or  traded.  Lazy  and  disorderly  servants  were  to  be  corrected 
by  stripes,  on  the  order  of  a  justice  of  the  peace. 

These  provisions  have  been  continued  in  all  the  revisions  of 
the  law  since  made,  and  are  now  the  law  of  the  land.  It  was 
partly  the  object  of  these  laws  to  prevent  free  negroes  from  be- 
coming numerous  in  the  State,  by  discouraging  their  settlement 
here,  and  discouraging  runaway  slaves  from  coming  to  Illinois, 
to  become  free  ;  and  when  we  consider  the  importance,  for  the 
purposes  of  harmony  and  good  government,  of  preserving  a 
homogeneous  character  amongst  the  people,  such  an  object  was 
a  wise  one.  But  for  what  purpose  such  severities  were  de- 
nounced against  slaves  and  servants,  when  their  numbers  were 
so  few  that  they  could  not  be  dangerous,  can  only  be  conjec- 
tured. The  most  plausible  account  of  the  matter  may  be,  that 
as  the  early  legislators  were  from  the  slave  States ;  they  im- 
ported this  law,  as  they  did  others,  without  considering  its  want 
of  application  to  the  condition  of  the  country.  In  the  same 
manner,  we  find  early  laws  imported  from  the  slave  States  for 
the  inspection  of  hemp  and  tobacco,  when  there  was  neither 
hemp  nor  tobacco  raised  in  the  country.  And  no  doubt  the 
feeling  and  habit  of  domination  over  the  slave  acquired  in  a 
slave  State,  and  brought  by  the  settlers  into  a  free  one,  had  its 
full  share  of  influence.  These  laws  would  have  been  modified 
or  repealed  long  ere  this,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  abolition 
excitement  of  modern  times,  which  has  made  it  dangerous  to 
the  popularity  of  politicians  to  propose  their  repeal,  since  such 
a  proposition  might  indicate  a  leaning  to  that  unpopular  party. 
But  as  it  is,  the  severe  points  of  them  are  now,  and  for  a  long 


HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS.  35 

time  past  have  been,  a  dead  letter  upon  the  pages  of  the  statute 
book,  there  being  no  instance,  within  the  memory  of  the  pres- 
ent generation,  of  putting  them  in  force. 

This  legislature  also  provided  for  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment from  the  town  of  Kaskaskia,  the  ancient  seat  of  empire 
for  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  both  for  the  French 
and  American  inhabitants.  Commissioners  were  appointed  to 
select  a  new  site,  who  made  choice  of  a  place,  then  in  the  midst 
of  the  wilderness,  on  the  Kaskaskia  river,  north-east  of  the  set- 
tlements, which  they  called  "  Vandalia."  After  the  place  had 
been  selected,  it  became  a  matter  of  great  interest  to  give  it 
a  good  sounding  name,  one  which  would  please  the  ear,  and  at 
the  same  time  have  the  classic  merit  of  perpetuating  the  mem- 
ory of  the  ancient  race  of  Indians  by  whom  the  country  had 
first  been  inhabited.  Tradition  says  that  a  wag  who  was  pres- 
ent, suggested  to  the  commissioners  that  the  "  Vandals"  were 
a  powerful  nation  of  Indians,  who  once  inhabited  the  banks  of 
the  Kaskaskia  river,  and  that  "  Vandalia,"  formed  from  their 
name,  would  perpetuate  the  memory  of  that  extinct  but  re- 
nowned people.  The  suggestion  pleased  the  commissioners, 
the  name  was  adopted,  and  they  thus  proved  that  the  name  of 
their  new  city  (if  they  were  fit  representatives  of  their  con- 
stituents) would  better'  illustrate  the  character  of  the  modern 
than  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  country. 

In  the  year  1818,  the  whole  people  numbered  about  forty- 
five  thousand  souls.  Some  two  thousand  of  these  were  the 
descendants  of  the  old  French  settlers  in  the  villages  of  Kaskas- 
kia, Prairie  Du  Rocher,  Prairie  Du  Pont,  Cahokia,  Peoria,  and 
Chicago.  These  people  had  fields  in  common  for  farming,  and 
farmed,  built  houses,  and  lived  in  the  style  of  the  peasantry  in 
old  France  an  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  They  had  made 
no  improvements  in  anything,  nor  had  they  adopted  any  of 
the  improvements  made  by  others.  They  were  the  descend- 
ants of  those  French  people  who  had  first  settled  the  country, 


36  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before,  under  Lasalle,  Ib- 
berville,  and  the  priests  Alvarez,  Rasles,  Gravier,  Pinet,  Marest, 
and  others,  and  such  as  subsequently  joined  them  from  New 
Orleans  and  Canada ;  and  they  now  formed  all  that  remained  of 
the  once  proud  empire  which  Louis  XIV.,  king  of  France,  and 
the  regent  Duke  of  Orleans,  had  intended  to  plant  in  the  Illi- 
nois country.  The  original  settlers  had  many  of  them  inter- 
married with  the  native  Indians,  and  some  of  the  descendants 
of  these  partook  of  the  wild,  roving  disposition  of  the  savage, 
united  to  the  politeness  and  courtesy  of  the  Frenchman.  In 
the  year  1818,  and  for  many  years  before,  the  crews  of  keel 
boats  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  were  furnished  from 
the  Frenchmen  of  this  stock.  Many  of  them  spent  a  great  part 
of  their  time,  in  the  spring  and  fall  seasons,  in  paddling  their 
canoes  up  and  down  the  rivers  and  lakes  in  the  river  bottoms, 
on  hunting  excursions,  in  pursuit  of  deer,  fur,  and  wild  fowl, 
and  generally  returned  home  well  loaded  with  skins,  fur,  and 
feathers,  which  were  with  them  the  great  staples  of  trade. 
Those  who  stayed  at  home,  contented  themselves  with  culti- 
vating a  few  acres  of  Indian  corn,  in  their  common  fields,  for 
bread,  and  providing  a  supply  of  prairie  hay  for  their  cattle 
and  horses.  No  genuine  Frenchman,  in  those  days,  ever  wore 
a  hat,  cap,  or  coat.  The  heads  of  both  men  and  women  were 
covered  with  Madras  cotton  handkerchiefs,  which  were  tied 
around,  in  the  fashion  of  night-caps.  For  an  upper  covering 
of  the  body  the  men  wore  a  blanket  garment,  called  a  "  capot," 
(pronounced  cappo)  with  a  cap  to  it  at  the  back  of  the  neck, 
to  be  drawn  over  the  head  for  a  protection  in  cold  weather,  or 
in  warm  weather  to  be  thrown  back  upon  the  shoulders  in  the 
fashion  of  a  cape.  Notwithstanding  this  people  had  been  so 
long  separated  by  an  immense  wilderness  from  civilized  so- 
ciety, they  still  retained  all  the  suavity  and  politeness  of  their 
race.  And  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  the  roughest  hunter  and 
boatman  amongst  them  could  at  any  time  appear  in  a  ball- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  37 

room,  or  other  polite  and  gay  assembly,  with  the  carriage  and 
behavior  of  a  well-bred  gentleman.  The  French  women  were 
remarkable  for  the  sprightliness  of  their  conversation  and  the 
grace  and  elegance  of  their  manners.  And  the  whole  popula- 
tion lived  lives  of  alternate  toil,  pleasure,  innocent  amusement, 
and  gaiety. 

Their  horses  and  cattle,  for  want  of  proper  care  and  food 
for  many  generations,  had  degenerated  in  size,  but  had  acquired 
additional  vigor  and  toughness  ;  so  that  a  French  pony  was  a 
proverb  for  strength  and  endurance.  These  ponies  were  made 
to  draw,  sometimes  one  alone,  sometimes  two  together,  one 
hitched  before  the  other,  to  the  plough,  or  to  carts  made  en- 
tirely of  wood,  the  bodies  of  which  held  about  double  the  con- 
tents of  the  body  of  a  common  large  wheel-barrow.  The  oxen 
were  yoked  by  the  horns  instead  of  the  neck,  and  in  this  mode 
were  made  to  draw  the  plough  and  cart.  Nothing  like  reins 
were  ever  used  in  driving  ;  the  whip  of  the  driver,  with  a  han- 
dle about  two  feet,  and  a  lash  two  yards  long,  stopped  or  guided 
the  horse  as  effectually  as  the  strongest  reins. 

The  French  houses  were  mostly  built  of  hewn  timber,  set 
upright  in  the  ground,  or  upon  plates  laid  upon  a  wall,  the  in- 
tervals between  the  upright  pieces  being  filled  with  stone  and 
mortar.  Scarcely  any  of  them  were  more  than  one  story  high, 
with  a  porch  on  one  or  two  sides,  and  sometimes  all  around, 
with  low  roofs  extending  with  slopes  of  different  steepness  from 
the  comb  in  the  centre  to  the  lowest  part  of  the  porch.  These 
houses  were  generally  placed  in  gardens,  surrounded  by  fruit- 
trees  of  apples,  pears,  cherries,  and  peaches  ;  and  in  the  villages 
each  enclosure  for  a  house  and  garden  occupied  a  whole  block 
or  square,  or  the  greater  part  of  one.  Each  village  had  its 
Catholic  church  and  priest.  The  church  was  the  great  place 
of  gay  resort  on  Sundays  and  holidays,  and  the  priest  was  the 
adviser  and  director  and  companion  of  all  his  flock.  The  peo- 
ple looked  up  to  him  with  affection  and  reverence,  and  he  upon 


88  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

them  with  compassion  and  tenderness.  He  was  ever  ready  to 
sympathize  with  them  in  all  their  sorrows,  enter  into  all  their 
joys,  and  counsel  them  in  all  their  perplexities.  Many  good 
Protestant  ministers,  who  stoutly  believed  these  Catholic  priests 
to  be  the  emissaries  of  Satan,  would  have  done  well  to  imitate 
their  simple-hearted  goodness  to  the  members  of  their  flocks. 

The  American  inhabitants  were  chiefly  from  Kentucky,  Vir- 
ginia, and  Pennsylvania.  Some  of  them  had  been  the  officers 
and  soldiers  under  General  George  Rogers  Clark,  who  conquer- 
ed the  country  from  the  British  in  1778,  and  they,  with  others 
who  afterwards  followed  them,  maintained  their  position  in 
the  country  during  the  Indian  wars  in  Ohio  and  Indiana  in  the 
times  of  Harmar,  St.  Clair,  and  Wayne.  This  handful  of  peo- 
ple, being  increased  in  the  whole  to  about  twelve  thousand 
souls,  by  subsequent  emigration,  with  the  aid  of  one  company 
of  regular  soldiers,  defended  themselves  and  their  settlements, 
during  the  war  of  1812,  against  the  then  numerous  and  power- 
ful nations  of  the  Kickapoos,  Sacs,  and  Foxes,  Pottawattomies 
and  Shawnees,  and  even  made  hostile  expeditions  into  the  heart 
of  their  territories,  burning  their  villages,  and  defeating  and 
driving  them  from  the  country.  In  the  year  1818,  the  settled 
part  of  the  State  extended  a  little  north  of  Edwardsville  and 
Alton  ;  south,  along  the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio ; 
east,  in  the  direction  of  Carlysle  to  the  Wabash  ;  and  down  the 
Wabash  and  the  Ohio,  to  the  mouth  of  the  last-named  river. 
But  there  was  yet  a  very  large  unsettled  wilderness  tract  of 
country,  within  these  boundaries,  lying  between  the  Kaskaskia 
river  and  the  Wabash ;  and  between  the  Kaskaskia  and  the 
Ohio,  of  three  days'  journey  across  it.  There  were  no  schools 
in  the  county,  except  for  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  and 
one  school  for  surveying  and  book-keeping.  The  lawyers  and 
professional  men  came  from  abroad.  Preachers  of  the  gospel 
frequently  sprung  up  from  the  body  of  the  people  at  home, 
without  previous  training,  except  in  religious  exercises  and  in 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  39 

the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  In  those  primitive  times  it 
was  not  thought  to  be  necessary  that  a  teacher  of  religion 
should  be  a  scholar.  It  was  thought  to  be  his  business  to  preach 
from  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  alone,  to  make  appeals  warm 
from  the  heart,  to  paint  heaven  and  hell  to  the  imagination  of 
the  sinner,  to  terrify  him  with  the  one,  and  to  promise  the 
other  as  a  reward  for  a  life  of  righteousness.  However  igno- 
rant these  first  preachers  may  have  been,  they  could  be  at  no 
loss  to  find  congregations  still  more  ignorant,  so  that  they  were 
still  capable  of  instructing  some  one.  Many  of  them  added  to 
their  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  a  diligent  perusal  of  Young's 
Night  Thoughts,  Watts'  hymns,  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  and 
Hervey's  Meditations,  a  knowledge  of  which  gave  more  com- 
pass to  their  thoughts,  to  be  expressed  in  a  profuse,  flowery  lan- 
guage, and  raised  their  feelings  to  the  utmost  height  of  poetical 
enthusiasm. 

Sometimes  their  sermons  turned  upon  matters  of  controver- 
sy ;  unlearned  arguments  on  the  subject  of  free  grace,  baptism, 
free  will,  election,  faith,  good  works,  justification,  sanctification, 
and  the  final  perseverance  of  the  saints.  But  that  in  which  they 
excelled,  was  the  earnestness  of  their  words  and  manner,  leav- 
ing no  doubt  of  the  strongest  conviction  in  their  own  minds, 
and  in  the  vividness  of  the  pictures  which  they  drew  of  the  in- 
effable blessedness  of  heaven,  and  the  awful  torments  of  the 
wicked  in  the  fire  and  brimstone  appointed  for  eternal  punish- 
ment. These,  with  the  love  of  God  to  sinful  men,  the  sufferings 
of  the  Saviour,  the  dangerous  apathy  of  sinners,  and  exhorta- 
tions to  repentance,  furnished  themes  for  the  most  vehement 
and  passionate  declamations.  But  above  all,  they  continually 
inculcated  the  great  principles  of  justice  and  sound  morality. 

As  many  of  these  preachers  were  nearly  destitute  of  learning 
and  knowledge,  they  made  up  in  loud  hallooing  and  violent  ac- 
tion what  they  lacked  in  information.  And  it  was  a  matter  of 
astonishment  to  what  length  they  could  spin  out  a  sermon  em- 


40  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

bracing  only  a  few  ideas.  The  merit  of  a  sermon  was  meas- 
ured somewhat  by  the  length  of  it,  by  the  flowery  language  of 
the  speaker,  and  by  his  vociferation  and  violent  gestures.  Nev- 
ertheless, these  first  preachers  were  of  incalculable  benefit  to 
the  country.  They  inculcated  justice  and  morality,  and  to  the 
sanction  of  the  highest  human  motives  to  regard  them,  added 
those  which  arise  from  a  belief  of  the  greatest  conceivable 
amount  of  future  rewards  and  punishments.  They  were  truly 
patriotic  also ;  for  at  a  time  when  the  country  was  so  poor 
that  no  other  kind  of  ministry  could  have  been  maintained  in 
it,  they  preached  without  charge  to  the  people,  working  week 
days  to  aid  the  scanty  charities  of  their  flocks,  in  furnishing 
themselves  with  a  scantier  living.  They  believed  with  a  posi- 
tive certainty  that  they  saw  the  souls  of  men  rushing  to  per- 
dition ;  and  they  stepped  forward  to  warn  and  to  save,  with 
all  the  enthusiasm  and  self-devotion  of  a  generous  man  who 
risks  his  own  life  to  save  his  neighbor  from  drowning.  And 
to  them  are  we  indebted  for  the  first  Christian  character  of  the 
Protestant  portion  of  this  people. 

The  long,  loud,  and  violent  declamations  of  these  early 
preachers,  seemed  to  be  well  adapted  to  the  taste  of  the  in- 
habitants. In  course  of  time  their  style  became  the  standard 
of  popular  eloquence.  It  was  adopted  by  lawyers  at  the  bar, 
and  by  politicians  in  their  public  harangues  ;  and  to  this  day, 
in  some  of  the  old  settled  parts  of  the  State,  no  one  is  accounted 
an  orator  unless  he  can  somewhat  imitate  thunder  in  his  style 
of  public  speaking.  From  hence,  also,  comes  the  vulgar  notion 
that  any  bellowing  fellow,  with  a  profusion  of  flowery  bombast, 
is  a  "  smart  man,"  a  man  of  talents,  fit  to  make  laws,  govern 
the  country,  and  originate  its  policy.  The  public  exercises  in 
religion  were  greatly  aided  by  the  loud  and  wild  music  made 
by  the  singing  of  untutored  voices.  He  was  considered  the 
best  singer,  who  could  wake  up  the  echoes  to  his  voice  from 
the  greatest  distance,  in  the  deep  woods  around  ;  so  that  in  pro- 


, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  41 

cess  of  time,  when  the  New  England  singing  masters  began  to 
establish  singing  schools,  many  people  looked  upon  their  scien- 
tific and  chastened  performances  with  perfect  scorn.  One  of 
these  itinerant  teachers  of  music  called  his  scholars  together, 
they  being  large,  loud-voiced  young  men  and  women,  trained 
to  sing  at  camp  meetings.  As  he  stood  out  in  their  midst,  and 
began  a  tune  in  a  low,  melodious  voice,  sawing  the  air  with  his 
hand,  to  beat  the  time,  sliding  gracefully  about  the  room,  after 
the  fashion  of  a  singing  master,  his  scholars  lifted  up  their  loud 
voices,  and  struck  into  the  tune  before  him,  overwhelming  him 
with  a  horrible  din  of  sound,  such  as  he  had  never  heard  be- 
fore, drowning  his  feeble  voice  and  his  fine  music,  both  together. 
The  scholars  were  vastly  pleased  with  their  own  performance, 
and  held  that  of  their  teacher  in  utter  contempt.  Whereupon, 
they  all  concluded  with  one  accord,  that  each  one  of  them  was 
already  far  superior  to  his  teacher,  and  the  school  broke  up. 

The  pursuits  of  the  people  were  agricultural.  A  very  few 
merchants  supplied  them  with  the  few  necessaries  which  could 
not  be  produced  or  manufactured  at  home.  The  farmer  raised 
his  own  provisions  ;  tea  and  coffee  were  scarcely  used,  except 
on  some  grand  occasions.  The  farmer's  sheep  furnished  wool 
for  his  winter  clothing ;  he  raised  cotton  and  flax  for  his  sum- 
mer clothing.  His  wife  and  daughters  spun,  wove,  and  made 
it  into  garments.  A  little  copperas  and  indigo,  with  the  bark 
of  trees,  furnished  dye  stuffs  for  coloring.  The  fur  of  the  rac- 
coon, made  him  a  hat  or  a  cap.  The  skins  of  deer  or  of  his 
cattle,  tanned  at  a  neighboring  tan-yard,  or  dressed  by  himself, 
made  him  shoes  or  moccasins.  Boots  were  rarely  seen,  even 
in  the  towns.  And  a  log  cabin,  made  entirely  of  wood,  with- 
out glass,  nails,  hinges,  or  locks,  furnished  the  residence  of  many 
a  contented  and  happy  family.  The  people  were  quick  and  in- 
genious to  supply  by  invention,  and  with  their  own  hands,  the 
lack  of  mechanics  and  artificers.  Each  farmer,  as  a  general 
thing,  built  his  own  house,  made  his  own  ploughs  and  harness, 


42  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

bedsteads,  chairs,  stools,  cupboards,  and  tables.  The  carts  and 
wagons  for  hauling,  were  generally  made  without  iron,  without 
tires,  or  boxes,  and  were  run  without  tar,  and  might  be  heard 
creaking  as  they  lumbered  along  the  roads,  for  the  distance  of 
a  mile  or  more. 

As  an  example  of  the  talents  of  this  people  to  supply  all  de- 
ficiencies, and  provide  against  accidents  by  a  ready  invention, 
the  following  anecdote  is  related  of  James  Lemon,  one  of  the 
old  sort  of  baptist  preachers,  formerly  of  Monroe  county,  but 
now  deceased.  Mr.  Lemon  was  a  farmer,  and  made  all  his  own 
harness.  The  collars  for  his  horses  were  made  of  straw  or  corn 
husks,  plaited  and  sewed  together  by  himself.  Being  engaged 
in  breaking  a  piece  of  stubble  ground,  and  having  turned  out 
for  dinner,  he  left  his  harness  on  the  beam  of  his  plough.  His 
son,  a  wild  youth,  who  was  employed  with  a  pitchfork  to  clear 
the  plough  of  the  accumulating  stubble,  staid  behind,  and  hid 
one  of  the  horse  collars.  This  he  did  that  he  might  rest  whilst 
his  father  made  a  new  collar.  But  the  old  man,  returning  in 
the  afternoon  and  missing  his  collar,  mused  for  a  few  minutes, 
and  then,  very  much  to  the  disappointment  of  his  truant  son, 
he  deliberately  pulled  off  his  leather  breeches,  stuffed  the  legs 
of  them  with  stubble,  straddled  them  across  the  neck  of  his 
horse  for  a  collar,  and  ploughed  the  remainder  of  the  day,  as 
bare-legged  as  he  came  into  the  world.  In  a  more  civilized 
country,  where  the  people  are  better  acquainted  with  the  great 
laws  which  control  the  division  of  labor,  a  half  day  would  have 
been  lost  in  providing  for  such  a  mishap. 

Such  a  thing  as  regular  commerce  was  nearly  unknown. 
Until  1817,  everything  of  foreign  growth  or  manufacture  had 
been  brought  from  New  Orleans  in  keel  boats,  towed  with  ropes 
or  pushed  with  poles,  by  the  hardy  race  of  boatmen  of  that 
day,  up  the  current  of  the  Mississippi ;  or  else  wagoned  across 
the  mountains  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburgh,  and  from  thence 
floated  down  the  Ohio  to  its  mouth  in  keel  boats ;  and  from 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  43 

there  shoved,  pushed,  and  towed  up  the  Mississippi,  as  from 
New  Orleans.  Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  war  of  1812  the 
people  from  the  old  States  began  to  come  in,  and  settle  in  the 
country.  They  brought  some  money  and  property  with  them, 
and  introduced  some  changes  in  the  customs  and  modes  of  liv- 
ing. Before  the  war,  such  a  thing  as  money  was  scarcely  ever 
seen  in  the  country,  the  skins  of  the  deer  and  raccoon  supplying 
the  place  of  a  circulating  medium.  The  money  which  was  now 
brought  in,  and  which  had  before  been  paid  by  the  United 
States  to  the  militia  during  the  war,  turned  the  heads  of  all  the 
people,  and  gave  them  new  ideas  and  aspirations ;  so  that  by 
1819  the  whole  country  was  in  a  rage  for  speculating  in  lands 
and  town  lots.  The  States  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  a  little  be- 
fore, had  each  incorporated  a  batch  of  about  forty  independent 
banks.  The  Illinois  territory  had  incorporated  two  at  home, 
one  at  Edwardsville  and  the  other  at  Shawneetown  ;  and  the 
territory  of  Missouri  added  two  more,  at  St.  Louis.  These 
banks  made  money  very  plenty  ;  emigrants  brought  it  to  the 
State  in  great  abundance.  The  owners  of  it  had  to  use  it  in 
some  way  ;  and  as  it  could  not  be  used  in  legitimate  commerce 
in  a  State  where  the  material  for  commerce  did  not  exist,  the 
most  of  it  was  used  to  build  houses  in  towns  which  the  limited 
business  of  the  country  did  not  require,  and  to  purchase  land 
which  the  labor  of  the  country  was  not  sufficient  to  cultivate. 
This  was  called  "  developing  the  infant  resources  of  a  new 
country." 

The  United  States  government  was  then  selling  land  at  two 
dollars  per  acre ;  eighty  dollars  on  the  quarter  section  to  be 
paid  down  on  the  purchase,  with  a  credit  of  five  years  for  the 
residue.  For  nearly  every  sum  of  eighty  dollars  there  was  in 
the  country,  a  quarter  section  of  land  was  purchased ;  for  in 
those  days  there  were  no  specie  circulars  to  restrain  unwar- 
rantable speculations ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  notes  of  most 
of  the  numerous  banks  in  existence,  were  good  in  the  public 


44  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

land  offices.  The  amount  of  land  thus  purchased,  was  increased 
by  the  general  expectation  that  the  rapid  settlement  of  the 
country  would  enable  the  speculator  to  sell  it  for  a  high  price, 
before  the  expiration  of  the  credit.  This  great  abundance  of 
money  also,  about  this  time,  made  a  vast  increase  in  the  amount 
of  merchandise  brought  into  the  State.  When  money  is  plenty 
every  man's  credit  is  good.  The  people  dealt  largely  with  the 
stores  on  credit,  and  drew  upon  a  certain  fortune  in  prospect 
for  payment.  Every  one  was  to  get  rich  out  of  the  future 
emigrant.  The  speculator  was  to  sell  him  houses  and  lands ; 
and  the  farmer  was  to  sell  him  everything  he  wanted  to  begin 
with  and  to  live  upon,  until  he  could  supply  himself.  Towns 
were  laid  out  all  over  the  country,  and  lots  were  purchased  by 
every  one  on  a  credit ;  the  town  maker  received  no  money  for 
his  lots,  but  he  received  notes  of  hand,  which  he  considered  to  be 
as  good  as  cash;  and  he  lived  and  embarked  in  other  ventures, 
as  if  they  had  been  cash  in  truth.  In  this  mode,  by  the  year 
1820,  nearly  the  whole  people  were  irrecoverably  involved  in 
debt.  The  banks  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky  broke,  one  after  an- 
other, leaving  the  people  of  those  States  covered  with  indebted- 
ness, and  without  the  means  of  extrication.  The  banks  at  home 
and  in  St.  Louis  ceased  business.  The  great  tide  of  immigrants 
from  abroad,  which  had  been  looked  for  by  every  one,  failed  to 
come.  Real  estate  was  unsaleable ;  the  lands  purchased  of  the 
United  States  were  unpaid  for,  and  likely  to  be  forfeited.  Bank 
notes  had  driven  out  specie,  and  when  these  notes  became 
worthless,  there  was  no  money  of  any  description  left  in  the 
country.  And  there  was  absolutely  no  commerce  by  means 
of  which  a  currency  could  be  restored.  For  in  those  days  we 
exported  nothing ;  and  if  there  had  been  any  property  fit  for 
exportation,  there  was  no  market  for  it  abroad,  and  if  there  had 
been  a  market,  there  was  no  capital  with  which  to  purchase  it 
and  take  it  to  market.  The  people  began  to  sue  one  another 
for  their  debts ;  and  as  there  was  absolutely  no  money  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  45 

country,  it  was  evident  that  scarcely  any  amount  of  property 
would  pay  the  indebtedness. 

To  remedy  these  evils,  the  legislature  of  1821  created  a 
State  Bank.  It  was  founded  without  money,  and  wholly  on 
the  credit  of  the  State.  Tt  was  authorized  to  issue  one,  two, 
three,  five,  ten  and  twenty  dollar  notes,  in  the  likeness  of  bank 
bills,  bearing  two  per  cent,  annual  interest,  and  payable  by  the 
State  in  ten  years.  A  principal  bank  was  established  at  Van- 
dalia,  and  four  or  five  branches  in  other  places ;  the  legislature 
elected  all  the  directors  and  officers ;  a  large  number  of  whom 
were  members  of  the  legislature,  and  all  of  them  professional 
politicians.  The  bank  was  directed  by  law  to  lend  its  bills  to 
the  people,  to  the  amount  of  one  hundred  dollars,  on  personal 
security ;  and  upon  the  security  of  mortgages  upon  land  for  a 
greater  sum.  These  bills  were  to  be  receivable  in  payment  of 
all  State  and  county  taxes,  and  for  all  costs  and  fees,  and  sala- 
ries of  public  officers;  and  if  a  creditor  refused  to  endorse  on 
his  execution  his  willingness  to  receive  them  in  payment  of 
debt,  the  debtor  could  replevy  or  stay  its  collection  for  three 
years,  by  giving  personal  security.  So  infatuated  were  this 
legislature  with  this  absurd  bank  project,  that  the  members 
firmly  believed  that  the  notes  of  this  bank  would  remain  at  par 
with  gold  and  silver ;  and  they  could  readily  prove  their  be- 
lief to  be  well-founded;  for  the  most  difficult  argument  to  an- 
swer is  one  founded  partly  upon  fact,  but  mostly  upon  guess 
work  and  conjecture.  As  an  evidence  of  the  belief  of  the  legis- 
lature to  this  effect,  the  journals  show  that  a  resolution  was 
passed,  requesting  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  of  the  United 
States,  to  receive  these  notes  into  the  land  offices  in  payment 
for  the  public  lands.  When  this  resolution  was  put  to  the  vote 
in  the  Senate,  the  old  French  lieutenant-governor,  Col.  Menard, 
presiding  over  that  body,  did  up  the  business  as  follows  :  "  Gen- 
tlemen of  de  Senate,  it  is  moved  and  seconded  dat  de  notes  of 
dis  bank  be  made  land  office  money.  All  in  favor  of  dat  mo- 


46  HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS. 

tion,  say  aye ;  all  against  it,  say  no.  It  is  decided  in  de  affirm- 
ative. And  now,  gentlemen,  /  bet  you  one  hundred  dollar  he 
never  be  made  land  office  money.'1''  The  county  of  Menard,  on. 
the  Sangamon  river,  was  named  in  honor  of  him;  and  the 
name  could  not  have  been  more  worthily  bestowed. 

John  McLean,  of  Shawneetown,  was  then  the  speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives.  He  was  opposed  to  this  bank,  and 
was  possessed  of  a  fertility  of  genius,  and  an  overpowering 
eloquence,  of  which  the  bank  party  were  justly  afraid.  For 
this  reason,  that  party  being  in  the  majority  in  the  House,  re- 
fused to  go  into  committee  of  the  whole,  so  as  to  allow  Mr. 
McLean  to  participate  in  the  debate.  Mr.  McLean,  indignant 
at  such  treatment,  resigned  his  office  of  speaker,  and  in  a  speech 
remarkable  for  its  ability  and  eloquence,  predicted  all  the  evil 
consequences  which  resulted  from  the  bank,  and  put  in  motion 
an  opposition  to  the  prevailing  policy  of  crippling  creditors  in 
the  collection  of  their  debts,  which  thereafter  prevented  the 
repetition  of  such  measures  during  that  generation.  But  the 
majority  were  for  the  bill.  The  governor  and  judges,  acting 
as  a  council  of  revisidh,  objected  to  it  as  being  unconstitutional 
and  inexpedient,  but  it  was  afterwards  repassed  through  both 
houses,  by  the  constitutional  majorities.  It  was  passed  in  the 
spirit  of  brute  force  triumphing  over  the  power  of  intellect. 
The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  afterwards  decided,  in 
the  case  of  Craig  against  the  State  of  Missouri,  that  the  bills 
payable  at  a  future  day  of  all  such  banks  representing  a  State 
only,  were  bills  of  credit,  and  prohibited  by  the  constitution. 

The  most  distinguished  advocate  for  the  creation  of  this  bank, 
amongst  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  was 
Judge  Richard  M.  Young,  who  has  since  been  so  prominent  in 
Illinois ;  and  who  is  one  of  the  very  many  examples  in  our 
history  of  the  forgiving  disposition  of  the  people,  to  such  of 
their  public  servants  as  have  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  in 
favor  of  bad  measures,  or  opposed  to  good  ones.  Mr.  McLean 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  47 

was  also  afterwards,  as  long  as  he  lived,  very  prominent  in  the 
politics  of  Illinois.  He  was  several  times  elected  to  the  legis- 
lature, once  elected  to  the  lower  house  of  Congress,  and  twice 
to  the  United  States  Senate,  and  died  a  member  of  the  Senate 
in  1830.  He  was  naturally  a  great,  magnanimous  man,  and 
a  leader  of  men.  The  county  of  McLean  was  named  in  honor 
of  him. 

In  the  summer  of  1821,  the  new  bank  went  into  operation. 
Every  man  who  could  get  an  endorser  borrowed  his  hundred 
dollars.  The  directors,  it  is  believed,  were  all  politicians ;  and 
either  were  then,  or  expected  to  be,  candidates  for  office.  Lend- 
ing to  everybody,  and  refusing  none,  was  the  surest  road  to 
popularity.  Accordingly,  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  of 
the  new  money  was '  soon  lent  without  much  attention  to  secu- 
rity or  care  for  eventual  payment.  It  first  fell  twenty-five 
cents,  then  fifty,  and  then  seventy  cents  below  par.  And  as 
the  bills  of  the  Ohio  and  Kentucky  banks  had  driven  all  other 
money  out  of  the  State,  so  this  new  issue  effectually  kept  it  out. 
Such  a  total  absence  was  there  of  the  silver  coins,  that  it  be- 
came utterly  impossible,  in  the  course  of  trade,  to  make  small 
change.  The  people,  from  necessity,  were  compelled  to  cut 
the  new  bills  into  two  pieces,  so  as  to  make  two  halves  of  a 
dollar.  This  again  further  aided  to  keep  out  even  the  smallest 
silver  coins,  for  the  people  must  know  that  good  money  is  a 
very  proud  thing,  and  will  not  circulate,  stay,  or  go  where  bad 
money  is  treated  with  as  much  respect  as  the  good.  For  about 
four  years  there  was  no  other  kind  of  money  but  this  uncur- 
rent  State  bank  paper.  In  the  meantime,  very  few  persons 
pretended  to  pay  their  debts  to  the  bank.  More  than  half  of 
those  who  had  borrowed,  considered  what  they  had  gotten  from 
it  as  so  much  clear  gain,  and  never  intended  to  pay  it  from 
the  first. 

By  the  year  1824,  it  became  impossible  to  carry  on  the  State 
government  with  such  money  as  the  bills  of  this  bank.  The 


48  HISTORY   OF  ILLINOIS. 

State  revenue  varied  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  thousand  dol- 
lars per  annum,  which  was  raised  almost  exclusively  by  a  tax 
on  lands,  then  owned  by  non-residents,  in  the  military  tract 
lying  north-west  of  the  Illinois  river.  The  resident  land  tax  in 
other  parts  of  the  State,  was  paid  into  the  county  treasuries. 
The  annual  expenditures  of  the  State  government  were  about 
equal  to  the  annual  revenues ;  and  as  the  taxes  were  collected 
in  the  bills  of  the  State  bank,  the  legislature,  to  carry  on  the 
government,  were  compelled  to  provide  for  their  own  pay,  and 
that  of  all  the  public  officers,  and  the  expenses  of  the  govern- 
ment, by  taking  and  giving  enough  of  the  depreciated  bills  to 
equal  in  value  the  sums  required  to  be  paid.  So  that  each 
member,  instead  of  receiving  three  dollars  per  day,  received 
nine  dollars  per  day.  The  salaries  of  the  governor  and  judges, 
and  all  other  expenses,  were  paid  in  the  same  way.  So  that 
if  $30,000  were  required  to  pay  the  expenses  of  government 
for  a  year,  under  this  system  it  took  $90,000  to  do  it.  And 
thus,  by  the  financial  aid  of  an  insolvent  bank,  the  legislature 
managed  to  treble  the  public  expenses,  without  increasing  the 
revenues  or  amount  of  service  to  the  State.  In  fact,  this  State 
lost  two-thirds  of  its  revenue,  and  expended  three  times  the 
amount  necessary  to  carry  on  the  government.  In  the  course 
of  ten  years,  it  must  have  lost  more  than  $150,000  by  receiving 
a  depreciated  currency,  $150,000  more  by  paying  it  out,  and 
$100,000  of  the  loans,  which  were  never  repaid  by  the  borrow- 
ers, and  which  the  State  had  to  make  good,  by  receiving  the 
bills  of  the  bank  for  taxes,  by  funding  some  at  six  per  cent,  in- 
terest, and  paying  a  part  in  cash  in  the  year  1831. 

The  year  1820  was  signalized  by  the  first  and  last  duel 
which  was  ever  fought  in  Illinois.  This  took  place  in  Belleville, 
St.  Clair  county,  between  Alphonso  Stewart  and  William  Ben- 
nett, two  obscure  men.  The  seconds  had  made  it  up  to  be  a 
sham  duel,  to  throw  ridicule  upon  Bennett,  the  challenging  par- 
ty. Stewart  was  in  the  secret ;  but  Bennett,  his  adversary, 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  49 

was  left  to  believe  it  a  reality.  They  were  to  fight  with  rifles ; 
the  guns  were  loaded  with  blank  cartridges ;  and  Bennett  some- 
what suspecting  a  trick,  rolled  a  ball  into  his  gun,  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  seconds,  or  of  the  other  party.  The  word  to 
fire  was  given,  and  Stewart  fell  mortally  wounded.  Bennett 
made  his  escape,  but  two  years  afterwards  he  was  captured  in 
Arkansas,  brought  back  to  the  State,  indicted,  tried  and  convict- 
ed of  murder.  A  great  effort  was  made  to  procure  him  a  par- 
don ;  but  Governor  Bond  would  yield  to  no  entreaties  in  his 
favor ;  and  Bennett  suffered  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law,  by 
hanging,  in  the  presence  of  a  great  multitude  of  people.  This 
was  the  first  and  last  duel  ever  fought  in  the  State  by  any  of  its 
citizens.  The  hanging  of  Bennett  made  duelling  discreditable 
and  unpopular,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  that  abhorrence  of 
the  practice  which  has  ever  since  been  felt  and  expressed  by 
the  people  of  Illinois.  The  present  Judge  Lockwood  was  then 
the  Attorney  General  of  the  State,  and  prosecuted  in  this  case. 
To  his  talents  and  success  as  a  prosecutor,  the  people  are  in- 
debted for  this  early  precedent  and  example,  which  did  more 
than  is  generally  known,  to  prevent  the  barbarous  practice  of 
duelling  from  being  introduced  into  this  State. 

3 


CHAPTER    II. 

Governor  Coles,  Judges  Philips  and  Brown,  and  General  Moore — The  question  of  Slave- 
ry— The  Missouri  question — Immigrants  from  the  Slave  States  to  Missouri — Growing 
desire  for  the  introduction  of  Slavery — The  Slavery  party — Effort  for  a  Convention 
to  amend  the  Constitution — Hanson  and  Shaw — Resolution  for  a  Convention  passed 
— The  riotous  conduct  of  the  Slave  party— The  free  State  party  rally ;  contest  be- 
tween them  in  the  election  of  1824— Principal  men  of  each  party— The  Convention 
defeated — Character  of  early  political  contests— No  measures ;  and  no  parties  of 
Whig  or  Democrat,  Federalist  or  Republican— Effect  of  regular  political  parties — 
Reorganization  of  the  Judiciary — Circuit  Courts  established — First  case  of  proscrip- 
tion—Causes the  repeal  of  the  Circuit  Courts— Road  law  and  School  law  providing 
for  a  tax,  operated  well  but  were  repealed— Hatred  of  taxation — School  law  of 
1840;  of  1845;  William  Thomas,  H.  M.  Wood,  John  S.  Wright,  and  Thompson 
Campbell— Present  state  of  Schools— Revision  of  the  laws  by  Judges  Lockwood  and 
Smith — Governor  Edwards,  Mr.  Sloe,  Lieutenant  Governor  Hubbard — His  speech, 
as  a  candidate  for  Governor — His  speech  about  Wolf  scalps. — The  old  State  Bank 
again— Effort  to  investigate  its  management— Resisted  by  the  Bank  officers— Gov- 
ernor Edwards'  messages — A  packed  committee  report  against  the  Governor — Power 
of  a  broken  Bank — Combinations  to  commit  crime  or  resist  law — Daniel  P.  Cook — 
Governor  Duncan — Change  of  political  parties — General  Jackson's  defeat,  and  sub- 
sequent election — Influence  of  this  upon  parties — Governor  Duncan's  change — Win- 
nebago  War — Galena — "  Suckers" — "  Pukes" — The  chief,  Red  Bird — Governor  Ed- 
wards' claim  to  the  public  lands— Sale  of  School  lands — Borrowing  of  the  School 
fund. 

IN  the  year  1822,  another  Governor  was  elected,  and  this  re- 
sulted in  again  agitating  the  question  of  the  introduction  of 
slavery.  There  were  four  candidates  for  the  office,  Joseph 
Philips,  the  chief  Justice ;  Thomas  C.  Brown,  one  of  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court ;  Major-General  James  B.  Moore,  and 
Edward  Coles,  who  was  at  that  time  Register  of  the  Land  office 
at  Edwardsville.  Mr.  Gales  was  a  Virginian,  had  been  private 
secretary  to  Mr.  Madison,  had  travelled  in  Europe,  was  well 
informed,  well  bred,  and  valuable  in  conversation ;  had  emanci- 
pated his  slaves  in  Virginia,  was  appointed  to  a  land  office  in 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  61 

Illinois,  through  the  influence  of  Mr.  Crawford,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  had  brought  his  slaves  -with  him  to  Illinois,  and 
settled  them  on  farms,  and  was  a  thorough  opponent  of  slavery. 
At  that  early  day,  Mr.  Crawford  and  John  C.  Calhoun,  of  South 
Carolina,  and  others,  were  looking  forward  as  candidates  for  the 
Presidency.  Ninians  Edwards,  one  of  our  Senators,  favored 
Mr.  Calhoun ;  and  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  our  other  Senator,  was  in 
favor  of  Mr.  Crawford.  To  counteract  the  influence  of  Edwards, 
Mr.  Coles  was  sent  out  to  Illinois.  Philips  and  Brown  were 
from  the  slave  States,  and  were  in  favor  of  slavery.  General 
Moore  run  also,  as  an  opponent  to  slavery.  Mr.  Coles  was 
elected  by  a  mere  plurality  vote  over  Philips,  his  highest  com- 
petitor ;  and,  of  course,  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  have  a  majority 
of  the  legislature  against  him  during  his  whole  term  of  service. 
This  election  took  place  not  long  after  the  settlement  of  the 
great  Missouri  question  ;  a  question  which  convulsed  the  whole 
nation,  and  came  near  dissolving  the  Union.  The  Illinois  Sen- 
ators in  Congress  had  voted  for  the  admission  of  Missouri  into 
the  Union  as  a  slave  State,  without  restriction,  whilst  Mr.  Cook, 
then  our  only  representative  in  the  lower  House,  voted  against 
it.  This  all  helped  to  keep  alive  some  questions  for  or  against 
the  introduction  of  slavery.  About  this  time,  also,  a  tide  of  im- 
migrants was  pouring  into  Missouri  through  Illinois,  from  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky.  In  the  fall  of  the  year,  every  great  road 
was  crowded  and  full  of  them,  all  bound  to  Missouri,  with  their 
money,  and  long  trains  of  teams  and  negroes.  These  were  the 
most  wealthy  and  best-educated  immigrants  from  the  slave  States. 
Many  of  our  people  who  had  land  and  farms  to  sell,  looked 
upon  the  good  fortune  of  Missouri  with  envy ;  whilst  the  lordly 
immigrant,  as  he  passed  along  with  his  money  and  droves  of  ne- 
groes, took  a  malicious  .pleasure  in  increasing  it,  by  pretending 
to  regret  the  short-sighted  policy  of  Illinois,  which  excluded  him 
from  settlement  amongst  us  ;  and  from  purchasing  the  lands  of 
our  people.  In  this  mode,  a  desire  to  make  Illinois  a  slave 


52  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

State,  became  quite  prevalent.  Many  persons  had  voted  for 
Brown  or  Philips  with  this  view ;  whilst  the  friends  of  a  free 
State  had  rallied  almost  in  a  body  for  Coles. 

Notwithstanding  the  defeat  of  the  party  at  this  election,  they 
were  not  annihilated.  They  had  only  been  beaten  for  Governor 
by  a  division  in  their  own  ranks ;  whilst  they  had  elected  a 
large  majority  in  each  house  of  the  Assembly,  and  were  now 
determined  to  make  a  vigorous  effort  to  carry  their  measure, 
at  the  session  of  the  legislature  to  be  held  in  1822-3.  Gov- 
ernor Coles,  in  his  first  message,  recommended  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  French  slaves.  This  served  as  the  spark  to  kindle 
into  activity  all  the  elements  in  favor  of  slavery. 

Slavery  could  not  be  introduced,  nor  was  it  believed  that  the 
French  slaves  could  be  emancipated,  without  an  amendment  of 
the  constitution ;  the  constitution  could  not  be  amended  with- 
out a  new  convention ;  to  obtain  which,  two-thirds  of  each 
branch  of  the  legislature  had  to  concur  in  recommending  it  to 
the  people ;  and  the  voters,  at  the  next  election,  had  to  sanction 
it  by  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  given  for  members  of  the  leg- 
islature. When  the  legislature  assembled,  it  was  found  that 
the  Senate  contained  the  requisite  two-thirds  majority ;  but  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  by  deciding  a  contested  election 
in  favor  of  one  of  the  candidates,  the  slave  party  would  have 
one  more  than  two-thirds ;  but  by  deciding  in  favor  of  the  other, 
they  would  lack  one  vote  of  having  that  majority.  These  two 
candidates  were  John  Shaw  and  Nicholas  Hanson,  who  claimed 
to  represent  the  county  of  Pike,  which  then  included  all  the 
military  tracts,  and  all  the  country  north  of  the  Dlinois  river 
to  the  northern  limits  of  the  State. 

The  leaders  of  the  slave  party  were  anxious  to  re-elect  Jesse 
B.  Thomas  to  the  United  States  Senate.  Hanson  would  vote 
for  him,  but  Shaw  would  not ;  Shaw  would  vote  for  the  Con- 
vention, but  Hanson  would  not.  The  party  had  use  for  both 
of  them,  and  they  determined  to  use  them  both,  one  after  the 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  53 

other.  For  this  purpose,  they  first  decided  in  favor  of  Han- 
son, admitted  him  to  a  seat,  and  with  his  vote  elected  their 
United  States  Senator ;  and  then,  towards  the  close  of  the  ses- 
sion, with  mere  brute  force,  and  in  the  most  barefaced  manner, 
they  reconsidered  their  former  vote,  turned  Hanson  out  of  his 
seat,  and  decided  in  favor  of  Shaw,  and  with  his  vote  carried 
their  resolution  for  a  convention. 

The  night  after  this  resolution  passed,  the  convention  party 
assembled  to  triumph  in  a  great  carousal.  They  formed  them- 
selves into  a  noisy,  disorderly,  and  tumultuous  procession, 
headed  by  Judge  Philips,  Judge  Smith,  Judge  Thomas  Eey- 
nolds,  late  governor  of  Missouri,  and  Lieutenant  Governor  Kin- 
ney,  followed  by  the  majority  of  the  legislature,  and  the  hang- 
ers-on and  rabble  about  the  seat  of  government ;  and  they 
marched,  with  the  blowing  of  tin  horns  and  the  beating  of 
drums  and  tin  pans,  to  the  residence  of  Governor  Coles,  and  to 
the  boarding  houses  of  their  principal  opponents,  towards  whom 
they  manifested  their  contempt  and  displeasure  by  a  confused 
medley  of  groans,  wailings,  and  lamentations.  Their  object 
was  to  intimidate,  and  crush  all  opposition  at  once. 

But  they  were  mistaken  :  the  anti-convention  party  took  new 
courage,  and  rallied  to  a  man.  They  established  newspapers  to 
oppose  the  convention  ;  one  at  Shawneetown,  edited  by  Henry 
Eddy ;  one  at  Edwardsville,  edited  by  Hooper  Warren,  with 
Gov.  Coles,  Thomas  Lippincott,  George  Churchill,  and  Judge 
Lockwood,  for  its  principal  contributors ;  and  finally,  one  at 
Vandalia,  edited  by  David  Blackwell,  the  secretary  of  State. 
The  slave  party  had  established  a  newspaper  at  Kaskaskia,  un- 
der the  direction  of  Mr.  Kane  and  Chief  Justice  Reynolds  ;  and 
one  at  Edwardsville,  edited  by  Judge  Smith  ;  and  both  parties 
prepared  to  appeal  to  the  interests,  the  passions,  and  the  intel- 
ligence of  the  people.  The  contest  was  mixed  up  with  much 
personal  abuse  ;  and  now  was  poured  forth  a  perfect  lava  of 
detraction,  which,  if  it  were  not  for  the  knowledge  of  the  peo- 


54  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

pie  that  such  matters  are  generally  false  or  greatly  exaggerated, 
would  have  overwhelmed  and  consumed  all  men's  reputations. 
Morris  Birkbeck,  an  Englishman,  who  settled  an  English  colony 
in  Edwards'  county,  Gov.  Coles,  David  Blackwell,  George 
Churchill,  and  Thomas  Lippincott,  wrote  fiery  hand-bills  and 
pamphlets,  and  the  old  preachers  preached  against  a  convention 
and  slavery.  Elias  K.  Kane,  Judge  Thomas  Eeynolds,  Judge 
Samuel  M'Roberts,  Judge  Smith,  and  others,  wrote  hand-bills 
and  pamphlets  in  its  favor.  These  missive  weapons  of  a  fiery 
contest  were  eagerly  read  by  the  people.  The  State  was  al- 
most covered  with  them ;  they  flew  everywhere,  and  everywhere 
they  scorched  and  scathed  as  they  flew.  This  was  a  long,  ex- 
cited, angry,  bitter,  and  indignant  contest.  It  was  to  last  from 
the  spring  of  1823  until  the  August  election  of  1824  ;  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  people  were  no  less  excited  than  their  political 
leaders.  Almost  every  stump  in  every  county  had  its  bellow- 
ing, indignant  orator,  on  one  side  or  the  other ;  and  the  whole 
people,  for  the  space  of  eighteen  months,  did  scarcely  anything 
but  read  newspapers,  hand-bills,  and  pamphlets,  quarrel,  argue, 
and  wrangle  with  each  other  whenever  they  met,  and  meet  to- 
gether to  hear  the  violent  harangues  of  their  orators. 

The  principal  partisans  in  favor  of  a  convention,  were  Judges 
Philips,  Brown,  and  John  Reynolds,  Jesse  B.  Thomas  and  Gov. ' 
Edwards,  our  senators  in  Congress,  Lieut.  Gov.  Kinney,  Judge 
Smith,  Chief  Justice  Thomas  Reynolds,  John  M'Lean,  Elias 
K.  Kane,  Judge  M'Roberts,  and  Gov.  Bond.  And  the  princi- 
pal men  opposed  to  a  convention  and  slavery,  were  Morris 
Birkbeck,  Gov.  Coles,  Daniel  P.  Cook,  our  member  of  Congress, 
David  Blackwell,  George  Churchill,  Samuel  D.  Lockwood, 
Thomas  Lippincott,  Hooper  Warren,  George  Forquer,  Thomas 
Mather,  and  Henry  Eddy.  The  odds  in  the  array  of  great 
names  seemed  to  be  in  favor  of  the  convention  party.  The 
question  of  slavery  was  thoroughly  discussed.  The  people  took 
an  undivided  and  absorbing  interest  in  it ;-  they  were  made  to 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  55 

understand  it  completely ;.  and  as  this  was  long  before  the 
abolition  excitement  of  modern  times,  the  introduction  of  slavery 
was  resisted,  not  so  much  upon  the  ground  of  opposition  to 
it  in  general,  as  simply  upon  the  grounds  of  policy  and  expe- 
diency. The  people  decided,  by  about  two  thousand  majority, 
in  favor  of  a  free  State.  Thus,  after  one  of  the  most  bitter, 
prolonged,  and  memorable  contests  which  ever  convulsed  the 
politics  of  this  State,  the  question  of  making  Illinois  a  slave 
State  was  put  to  rest,  as  it  is  hoped,  forever. 

Nothing  of  any  interest  occurred  after  this  struggle  until 
the  session  of  the  legislature  in  1824-'5.  The  people  had  been 
so  long  under  the  influence  of  an  intense  excitement,  that  they 
required  rest.  And  as  a  general  thing,  they  had  not  then  be- 
come inured  to  a  political  warfare,  which  has  latterly  become 
interminable.  The  contests  in  those  days  were  of  short  dura- 
tion, and  were  scarcely  ever  repeated  on  the  same  grounds  or 
questions.  There  were  no  parties  of  Whig  and  Democrat, 
Federalist  and  Eepublican.  The  contests  were  mostly  personal, 
and  for  men.  As  for  principles  and  measures,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  convention  question,  there  were  none  to  contend 
for.  Every  election  turned  upon  the  fitness  and  unfitness,  the 
good  and  bad  qualities  of  the  candidates.  The  only  mode  of 
electioneering  for  a  friend  then  known,  was  to  praise  one  set 
of  men,  and  blacken  the  characters  of  the  other.  The  candi- 
dates were  not  announced  until  within  a  few  weeks  of  the  elec- 
tion; the  contest  was  soon  over,  and  then  peace  and  quiet 
reigned  until  the  next  election,  two  years  afterwards. 

There  are  those  who  are  apt  to  believe  that  this  mode  of 
conducting  elections  is  likely  to  result  in  the  choice  of  the  best 
materials  for  administering  government.  But  experience  did 
not  prove  the  fact  to  be  so.  The  idea  of  electing  men  for 
their  merit  has  an  attractive  charm  in  it  to  generous  minds ; 
but  in  our  history  it  has  been  as  full  of  delusion  as  it  has 
been  attractive.  Nor  has  the  organization  of  regular  parties, 


56  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

and  the  introduction  of  the  new  principle  in  elections  of 
"  measures  not  men,"  fully  answered  the  expectation  of  its 
friends.  But  if  the  introduction  of  such  parties,  supposed  to 
be  founded  on  a  difference  in  principles,  has  done  no  other  good, 
it  has  greatly  softened  and  abated  the  personal  rancor  and  as- 
perity of  political  contests,  though  it  has  made  such  contests 
increasing  and  eternal.  It  is  to  be  regretted,  however,  if  there 
be  evils  attending  the  contests  of  party,  that  society  cannot  re- 
ceive the  full  benefit  from  them  by  the  total  extinction  of  all 
mere  personal  considerations,  personal  quarrels,  and  personal 
crimination,  not  necessary  to  exhibit  the  genius  and  tendency 
of  a  party  as  to  measures,  and  which  are  merely  incidental  to 
contests  for  office.  The  present  doctrine  of  parties  is  measures, 
not  men,  which  if  truly  carried  out  would  lead  to  a  discussion 
of  measures  only.  But  parties  are  not  yet  sufficiently  organ- 
ized for  this  ;  and,  accordingly,  we  find  at  every  election  much 
personal  bitterness  and  invective  mingled  with  the  supposed 
contests  for  principle.  The  political  world  is  still  full  of  those 
men  who  believe,  and  perhaps  believe  correctly,  that  the  at- 
tachment to  principle  is  not  yet  so  general  and  perfect  as  to  de- 
stroy all  chance  of  overthrowing  the  principles  of  a  candidate 
by  overwhelming  his  reputation  with  falsehood.  Perhaps  the 
time  may  come  when  all  these  personal  contests  will  be  con- 
fined to  the  bosom  of  one  party,  in  selecting  the  best  candidates 
to  carry  out  its  principles. 

At  the  session  of  1824-'5,  the  legislature,  under  the  provis- 
ions of  the  Constitution,  re-organized  the  judiciary,  by  creating 
five  circuit  court  judges,  who  were  to  hold  all  the  circuit  courts 
in  the  State  ;  and  the  supreme  court,  composed  of  four  judges, 
was  to  be  held  twice  a  year  at  the  seat  of  government.  Wil- 
liam Wilson  was  elected  chief  justice  ;  Thomas  C.  Brown,  Sam- 
uel D.  Lockwood,  and  Theophilus  W.  Smith  were  elected  asso- 
ciate judges  of  the  supreme  court ;  John  York  Sawyer,  Samuel 
M'Roberts,  Richard  M.  Young,  James  Hall,  and  James  O. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  57 

Wattles,  were  elected  judges  of  the  circuits  ;  and  James  Tur- 
ney  to  be  attorney  general.  Of  these  ten  great  officers,  it  is 
believed  that  Wilson,  Brown,  Smith,  Sawyer,  M'Roberts, 
Young,  Hall,  and  Turney,  had  belonged  to  the  convention 
party  ;  but  such  was  the  nature  of  party,  at  that  day,  that  they 
had  not  lost  their  popularity  even  with  the  party  opposed  to 
them.  The  anti-convention  party  had  a  large  majority  in  this 
legislature  ;  but  upon  the  principle  of  men,  not  measures,  they 
put  their  opponents  into  office. 

Proscription  for  opinion's  sake  was  then  but  little  known. 
The  first  instance  of  it  was  shortly  afterwards  put  in  practice  by 
one  of  the  circuit  judges.  Judge  M'Roberts  removed  Joseph 
Conway,  an  opponent,  and  appointed  Emanuel  J.  West,  a  friend 
of  his  own,  to  be  clerk  of  the  circuit  court  of  Madison  county. 
Mr.  Conway  was  well  known,  and  popular  in  several  of  the 
adjacent  counties.  The  people  of  his  own  county  elected  him 
to  the  Senate  without  opposition,  and  kept  him  there,  by  re- 
election, for  eight  years.  A  great  outcry  was  raised  against 
the  extravagance  of  the  judiciary  system,  the  prodigal  waste  of 
the  public  money  to  pension  unnecessary  life  officers  upon  the 
people  ;  and  a  talented  young  lawyer,  of  stirring  eloquence  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  State,  a  man  possessing  many  qualities 
which  admirably  fitted  him  for  a  demagogue  of  the  highest 
order,  mounted  the  hobby,  and  rode  it  in  a  storm  of  passion 
through  several  counties  in  the  south.  The  legislature  of  1826-'7 
repealed  the  circuit  system,  turned  the  circuit  judges  out  of 
office,  and  required  the  judges  of  the 'supreme  court  to  hold 
the  circuit  courts.  The  chief  reasons  for  the  repeal  of  the 
system,  were  its  cost  and  the  proscription  of  a  popular  clerk. 
It  was  thought  to  be  the  height  of  extravagance  to  maintain 
nine  judges,  though  the  salaries  of  all  of  them  together  amounted 
only  to  six  thousand  two  hundred  dollars.  The  salary  of  a 
judge  of  the  supreme  court  was  eight  hundred  dollars,  and  that 
of  a  circuit  judge  was  six  hundred  dollars.  Such  were  then  the 

3* 


58  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 


popular  notions  of  economy  and  extravagance  in  public  expen- 
ditures. 

The  effort  to  repeal  the  circuit  judges  out  of  office  was  aided 
by  a  decision  of  Judge  M'Eoberts  on  the  circuit.  It  has  been 
said  before  that  Gov.  Coles  had  emancipated  his  negroes.  The 
law  required  him  to  give  a  bond  for  their  good  behavior,  and 
that  they  should  not  become  a  county  charge.  This  he  omitted 
to  do,  and  thereby  subjected  himself  to  a  penalty  of  two  hun- 
dred dollars  for  each  negro,  to  be  sued  for  by  the  county  in 
which  they  were  set  free.  The  county  commissioners  of  Madi- 
son county,  during  the  convention  contest,  were  instigated  to 
bring  a  suit  against  him*  for  this  penalty,  and  obtained  the  ver- 
dict of  a  jury  in  the  suit  for  two  thousand  dollars ;  but  before 
any  judgment  was  rendered,  the  legislature,  by  law,  released 
him  from  the  penalty.  At  the  next  term  of  the  court,  Gov. 
Coles,  in  pursuance  of  the  act  of  the  legislature  for  his  relief, 
plead  it  in  bar  of  a  judgment  on  the  verdict.  But  Judge 
M'Roberts,  being  under  the  erroneous  belief  that  the  legal  doc- 
trine of  vested  rights  was  applicable  to  municipal  corporations 
created  solely  for  purposes  of  government,  decided  that  the  law 
was  unconstitutional  and  void.  The  decision  made  a  great  noise 
at  the  time,  as  it  naturally  would  directly  after  a  fierce  contest 
about  slavery.  It  was  taken  to  the  supreme  court  and  reversed, 
as  a  matter  of  course. 

At  the  session  of  1825,  also,  William  S.  Hamilton  introduced 
a  new  road  law,  which  passed  the  legislature.  Hitherto  the 
law  had  required  every  able-bodied  man  to  work  on  the  roads 
five  days  in  the  year.  The  new  law  levied  a  tax  in  proportion 
to  property,  to  be  applied  in  money  or  labor  to  the  construc- 
tion and  repair  of  roads.  Gov.  Duncan,  then  a  member  of  the 
Senate,  introduced  a  bill  which  became  a  law,  for  the  support 
of  schools  by  a  public  tax.  Both  of  these  laws  worked  ad- 
mirably well.  The  roads  were  nevci',  before  nor  since,  in  such 
good  repair,  and  schools  flourished  in  almost  every  neighbor- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  59 

hood.  But  it  appears  that  these  valuable  laws  were  in  advance 
of  the  civilization  of  the  times.  They  were  the  subject  of  much 
clamorous  opposition.  The  very  idea  of  a  tax,  though  to  be 
paid  in  labor  as  before,  was  so  hateful,  that  even  the  poorest 
men  preferred  to  work  five  days  in  the  year  on  the  roads 
rather  than  to  pay  a  tax  of  twenty-five  cents,  or  even  no  tax 
at  all.  For  the 'same  reason,  they  preferred  to  pay  all  that  was 
necessary  for  the  tuition  of  their  children,  or  to  keep  them  in 
ignorance,  rather  than  submit  to  the  mere  name  of  a  tax  by 
which  their  wealthier  neighbors  bore  the  brunt  of  the  expense 
of  their  education.  Both  of  these  laws  were  repealed  and  the 
old  systems  restored,  by  the  legislature  of  1826-'7.  Since 
then,  the  legislature  has  been  constantly  engaged  in  making  and 
amending  laws  for  roads  and  schools,  but  there  has  been  no 
good  system  of  either.  Each  subsequent  attempt  has  been  only 
a  vain  effort  to  accomplish  its  purpose  by  inadequate  means. 
To  come  forward  a  little,  in  1840  Judge  William  Thomas,  of 
Jacksonville,  prepared  a  school  bill  which  became  a  law,  but 
for  want  of  the  taxing  power,  which  the  legislature  refused  to 
grant,  it  had  but  little  effect.  In  the  summer  of  1844,  John 
S.  Wright,  of  Chicago,  H.  M.  Weed,  of  Lewiston,  Thomas  M. 
Kilpatrick,  of  Winchester,  and  others,  got  up  a  common  school 
convention  at  Peoria,  which  prepared  a  very  enlightened  memo- 
rial to  the  legislature  in  favor  of  common  schools ;  and  as  a 
means  of  furthering  the  common  object,  the  governor,  at  the 
session  of  1844,  recommended  the  appointment  of  a  superin- 
tendent of  common  schools,  to  stir  up  the  people  and  to  col- 
lect information  for  the  use  of  the  legislature.  The  whole  re- 
sulted in  a  new  school  law,  making  the  secretary  of  State  ex 
officio  the  superintendent  of  common  schools,  and  authorizing 
a  school  tax  to  be  levied  in  each  district.  Mr.  Thompson 
Campbell,  the  secretary  of  State,  made  an  able  report  to  the 
legislature  of  1846-'7,  from  which  it  appears  that  information 
had  been  collected  from  fifty-seven  counties  only,  out  of  the 


60  HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS. 

ninety-nine  in  the  State,  and  that,  with  the  exception  of  Chicago 
and  some  other  places,  the  common  schools  were  nowhere  in  a 
very  flourishing  condition.  The  school  commissioners  and  other 
agents  of  schools  in  the  counties,  receiving  no  compensation 
for  their  services,  were  generally  negligent  of  their  duties,  or 
not  qualified  to  perform  them.  Almost  everywhere  the  people 
had  refused  to  tax  themselves  under  the  law ;  and  in  almost 
all  the  south  part  of  the  State  there  were  complaints  that  the 
legal  standard  of  qualifications  for  teachers  was  too  high,  the 
law  requiring  a  knowledge  of  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic, 
English  grammar,  geography,  and  history  ;  and  the  people, 
being  scarce  of  materials  for  such  learned  teachers,  were  de- 
sirous of  getting  back  to  the  old  standard  of  reading,  writing, 
and  ciphering,  to  the  rule  of  three,  or  at  farthest  through  the 
arithmetic. 

And  now  to  go  back  again ;  at  the  session  of  1824-'5,  the 
judges  of  the  supreme  court  were  appointed  to  prepare  a  re- 
vision of  the  laws,  and  present  it  at  the  next  session.  At  the 
session  of  1826-'7,  Judges  Lock  wood  and  Smith  presented  the 
result  of  their  labor,  which  was  adopted,  and  the  laws  then 
presented  by  them,  have  been  standard  laws  in  every  revision 
since.  It  is  believed  that  they  were  the  authors  of  the  laws  in 
the  revised  code,  under  the  titles  Abatement,  Account,  Amend- 
ments and  Jeofails,  Apprentices,  Attachments,  Attorneys,  Bail, 
Bills  of  Exchange,  Chancery,  Conveyances,  Courts,  Criminal 
Code,  Depositions,  Detinue,  Dower,  Evidence,  Forcible  Entry 
and  Detainer,  Fugitives  from  Justice,  Habeas  Corpus,  Jails 
and  Jailors,  Limitations,  Mandamus,  Minors  and  Orphans,  Ne 
Exeat  and  Injunctions,  Oaths  and  Affirmations,  Practice,  Prom- 
issory Notes,  Replevin,  Right  of  Property,  and  Sheriffs  and 
Coroners.  Judge  M'Roberts  prepared  the  act  concerning 
frauds  and  perjuries;  Judge  Sawyer,  the  act  concerning  in- 
solvent debtors;  Judge  Young,  the  act  concerning  wills  and 
testaments ;  and  Henry  Starr,  Esq.,  now  of  Cincinnati,  pre- 

* 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  61 

pared  the  act  concerning  judgments  and  executions.  It  is  most 
probable  that  all  these  laws  were  more  perfect  when  they  came 
from  the  hands  of  their  authors,  than  after  they  were  amended, 
somewhat  out  of  shape  and  system,  by  the  legislature. 

A  new  election  for  governor  took  place  in  1826,  for  which 
office  there  were  three  candidates — Thomas  C.  Sloe,  now  of 
New  Orleans,  was  one  of  them.  He  was  a  well-informed  mer- 
chant, and  a  man  of  good  character  and  strong  sense,  and 
withal  was  a  well-bred,  courteous  gentleman.  Ninian  Ed- 
wards, and  the  then  lieutenant-governor,  Adolphus  Frederick 
Hubbard,  were  the  other  two  candidates.  As  a  part  of  a  pic- 
ture of  the  times,  and  as  illustrative  of  what  a  candidate  for 
governor  thought  of  himself  and  the  people,  I  preserve  a  few 
words  of  one  of  Mr.  Hubbard's  public  addresses  during  the 
canvass.  In  his  speeches  he  said :  "  Fellow-citizens,  I  offer  my- 
self as  a  candidate  before  you,  for  the  office  of  governor.  I  do 
not  pretend  to  be  a  man  of  extraordinary  talents ;  nor  do  I 
claim  to  be  equal  to  Julius  Caesar  or  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  nor 
yet  to  be  as  great  a  man  as  my  opponent,  Governor  Edwards. 
Nevertheless,  I  think  I  can  govern  you  pretty  well.  I  do  not 
think  that  it  will  require  a  very  extraordinary  smart  man  to 
govern  you ;  for  to  tell  you  the  truth,  fellow-citizens,  I  do  not 
think  you  will  be  very  hard  to  govern,  no  how."  Mr.  Hub- 
bard  could  not  have  made  this  last  assertion  with  much  show 
of  truth,  for  several  years  part. 

This  gentleman  had  made  himself  famous  for  a  number  of 
odd  sayings,  and  by  a  speech  in  the  legislature  on  a  bill  to  pay 
a  bounty  on  wolf-scalps.  Tradition  has  preserved  this  speech 
as  follows  :  "  Mr.  Speaker,  I  rise  before  the  question  is  put  on 
this  bill,  to  say  a  word  for  my  constituents.  Mr.  Speaker,  I 
have  never  seen  a  wolf.  I  cannot  say  that  I  am  very  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  nature  and  habits  of  wolves.  Mr.  Speaker, 
I  have  said  that  I  had  never  seen  a  wolf.  But  now  I  remem- 
ber that  once  on  a  time,  as  Judge  Brown  and  I  were  riding 


62  HISTOEY  OF   ILLINOIS. 

across  the  Bonpas  prairie,  we  looked  over  the  prairie  about 
three  miles,  and  Judge  Brown  said,  Hubbard !  look !  there 
goes  a  wolf !  And  I  looked,  and  I  looked,  and  I  looked,  and  I 
said,  Judge,  where  ?  And  he  said  there ;  and  I  looked  again, 
and  this  time,  in  the  edge  of  a  hazle  thicket,  about  three  miles 
across  the  prairie,  I  think  I  saw  the  wolf's  tail.  Mr.  Speaker, 
if  I  did  not  see  a  wolf  this  time,  I  think  I  never  saw  one.  But 
I  have  heard  much  and  read  more  about  this  animal.  I  have 
studied  his  natural  history.  By-the-bye,  history  is  divided 
into  two  parts ;  there  is,  first,  the  history  of  the  fabulous,  and 
secondly,  of  the  non-fabulous,  or  unknown  ages.  Mr.  Speaker, 
from  all  these  sources  of  information,  I  learn  that  the  wolf  is  a 
very  noxious  animal ;  that  he  goes  prowling  about,  seeking 
something  to  devour ;  that  he  rises  up  in  the  dead  and  secret 
hours  of  the  night,  when  all  nature  reposes  in  silent  oblivion, 
and  then  commits  the  most  terrible  devastations  upon  the  rising 
generation  of  hogs  and  sheep.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  done,  and 
return  my  thanks  to  the  house  for  their  kind  attention  to  my 
remarks."  These  speeches  are  truly  characteristic  of  the  man ; 
and  they  are  given  as  being  illustrative  of  the  state  of  civiliza- 
tion which  existed,  when  such  a  man  could  be  elected  to  the 
office  of  lieutenant-governor,  and  gain  such  popularity  in  his 
office  as  to  be  encouraged  to  become  a  candidate  for  governor. 
Ninian  Edwards,  the  other  candidate  at  this  election,  was 
born  in  Maryland  and  brought  up  in  Kentucky.  He  was  bred 
to  the  legal  profession,  and  became  attorney-general  of  Ken- 
tucky at  an  early  age.  At  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  he  was  ap- 
pointed chief  justice  of  the  High  Court  of  Appeals.  He  held 
this  office  when  the  late  Chief  Justice  Boyle,  of  Kentucky,  was 
appointed  the  first  governor  of  the  Illinois  territory  in  1809. 
Mr.  Edwards  preferred  to  be  governor  of  the  territory,  and 
Mr.  Boyle  preferred  to  be  chief  justice ;  so  in  the  end  they  ex- 
changed offices.  Edwards  was  sent  out  to  Illinois  by  the  pres- 
ident as  first  governor  of  the  territory,  and  Boyle  was  made 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  63 

chief  justice  by  the  Governor  of  Kentucky.  Edwards  was  a 
large,  well-made  man,  with  a  noble,  princely  appearance,  which 
was  a  circumstance  greatly  in  his  favor,  as  governor  over  a  rude 
people,  of  whom  it  may  be  said,  that  the  animal  greatly  predom- 
inated over  the  intellectual  man.  In  fact,  it  may  well  be  ques- 
tioned whether  mankind  ever  will  become  so  intellectual  and 

^B 

spiritual,  that  mere  size,  vigor  of  muscle,  and  consequent  ani- 
mal spirits,  will  cease  to  have  more  influence  with  the  multi- 
tude than  mere  intellect,  unaided  by  these  fleshly  advantages. 
Gov.  Edwards  had  been  governor  of  the  Illinois  territory  for 
nine  years,  and  was  then  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate. 
In  this  office  he  showed  an  extensive  knowledge  of  public  affairs, 
and  became  distinguished  as  a  man  of  fine  talents  throughout 
the  Union.  Whilst  in  the  Senate,  he  was  appointed  by  Mr. 
Monroe  to  be  minister  to  Mexico,  and  shortly  after  this  ap- 
pointment, whilst  on  his  way  home  to  Illinois,  to  prepare  for 
his  mission,  he  wrote  out  and  sent  back  to  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives in  Congress,  various  charges  against  William  H. 
Crawford,  secretary  of  the  treasury,  accusing  him  of  a  corrupt 
administration  of  the  treasury  department,  in  aid  of  his  election 
to  the  presidency.  A  committee  of  investigation  was  appointed, 
a  messenger  of  the  House  was  sent  after  Mr.  Edwards,  with 
whom  he  was  required  to  return  to  Washington.  Mr.  Edwards 
failed  to  make  good  his  charges  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  com- 
mittee, and  as  this  happened  just  before  the  presidential  election 
of  1824,  when  the  whole  country  was  convulsed  with  excitement, 
it  resulted  in  prostrating  his  character  abroad,  and  very  much 
affected  his  standing  at  home.  Public  opinion  was  so  much 
against  him  in  the  nation,  that  he  resigned  his  mission  to  Mex- 
ico. Gov.  Edwards  has  often  informed  me  himself,  that  he 
made  the  charges  against  Mr.  Crawford  under  a  promise  of 
support  from  President  Monroe,  Gen.  Jackson,  John  C.  Cal- 
noun,  and  John  Quincy  Adams.  I  merely  give  his  words, 
without  pretending  to  know  whether  he  spoke  the  truth  or  not. 


64  HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS. 

But  one  thing  makes  his  statement  the  more  probable.  Mr. 
Crawford  had  been  nominated  for  the  presidency  by  a  caucus 
of  fifty  or  sixty  of  the  republican  members  of  Congress.  Before 
that  time,  this  had  been  the  usage  of  the  republican  party.  But 
Gen.  Jackson,  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  Henry  Clay,  were  in- 
dependent candidates,  John  C.  Calhoun  had  been  one  and  de- 
clined ;  and  many  people  believing  caucus  nominations  by 
members  of  Congress  to  be  utterly  corrupt  and  corrupting,  a 
powerful  party  was  formed  to  break  up  the  usage.  Upon  this 
principle  all  the  other  candidates  and  their  friends  were  rallied 
against  Mr.  Crawford. 

This  defeat  very  much  injured  the  influence  of  Gov.  Edwards, 
and  now,  when,  as  a  candidate  for  Governor  he  attacked  the  finan- 
cial system  which  had  hitherto  prevailed ;  and  committed  him- 
self to  press  an  investigation  into  the  corruptions  of  the  old 
State  bank,  he  was  not  listened  to,  or  confided  in  to  the  extent 
required  by  a  reformer,  in  the  work  of  reforming  public  abuses. 
He  was  opposed  by  all  the  old  members  of  the  legislature, 
who  had  supported  the  many  unwise  measures  of  finance,  and 
by  the  whole  bank  influence,  from  the  Presidents  down  to  the 
lowest  agents,  who  had  in  anywise  cause  to  fear  an  investiga- 
tion. But  his  great  talents  and  fine  personal  appearance  en- 
abled him  to  triumph  over  his  adversaries.  He  was  elected  by 
a  mere  plurality  vote  over  Mr.  Sloe,  his  principal  opponent. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark  here,  that  he  never  condescended  to  the 
common  low  arts  of  electioneering.  Whenever  he  went  out 
among  the  people,  he  arrayed  himself  in  the  style  of  a  gentle- 
man of  the  olden  times,  dressed  in  fine  broadcloth,  with  short 
breeches,  long  stockings,  and  high,  fair-topped  boots ;  was  drawn 
in  a  fine  carriage,  driven  by  a  negro ;  and  for  success  he  relied 
upon  his  speeches,  which  were  delivered  with  great  pomp,  and 
in  a  style  of  diffuse  and  florid  eloquence. 

When  he  was  inaugurated  in  1826,  he  appeared  before  the 
General  Assembly  wearing  a  gold-laced  cloak,  and  with  great 


HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS.  65 

pomp  he  pronounced  his  first  message  to  the  two  houses  of 
the  legislature.  In  this  address  he  merely  repeated  the  grounds 
which  he  had  taken  as  a  candidate.  But  in  several  messages 
afterwards,  he  pointed  out  to  the  House  of  Representatives 
specific  acts  of  mismanagement  and  corruption  on  the  part  of 
the  officers  of  the  old  bank.  A  committee  of  investigation  was 
appointed.  The  bank  directors  and  officers,  new  and  old,  were 
sent  for  from  every  quarter.  The  charges  of  corruption  were 
directed  more  particularly  against  Judge  Smith,  who,  as  cashier, 
had  administered  the  Edwardsville  branch.  Smith  was  a  saga- 
cious, active  and  blustering  politician,  and  managed  to  make  all 
persons  who  had  been  connected  with  the  bank,  believe  that 
they  were  all  involved  in  a  common  danger.  A  powerful  com- 
bination of  influential  men  was  thus  formed  to  thwart  the  in- 
vestigation, and  ensure  their  common  safety  from  impeachment. 
And  now  commenced  such  a  running  to  and  fro,  about  the  seat 
of  government  by  day  and  night,  as  can  only  be  equaled  by 
a  swarm  of  bees  when  rudely  attacked  in  their  hive.  The  Gov- 
ernor was  openly  and  boldly  charged  with  base  motives ;  and 
that  kind  of  stigma  was  attempted  to  be  cast  on  him,  which  is 
apt  to  fix  itself  upon  a  common  informer.  His  charges  against 
Mr.  Crawford  were  remembered ;  and  he  was  now  charged  with 
being  influenced  by  hostility  towards  Judge  Smith,  who  had 
been  a  friend  to  Mr.  Crawford's  election.  Judge  Smith,  with 
others  involved  in  the  charges,  as  a  sure  mode  of  defence  raised 
a  cry  of  persecution,  and  alleged  that  the  whole  weight  of  the 
executive  power  and  influence,  directed  by  the  spirit  of  revenge, 
had  been  pointed  to  overwhelm  them.  Without  pronouncing 
here  upon  either  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  accused,  it  may 
be  remarked  that  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  rogues,  when 
about  to  be  held  accountable  for  crime,  to  seek  sympathy  and 
aid  by  raising  a  cry  of  persecution.  And  as  strength  is  sup- 
posed to  be  on  the  side  of  men  in  high  office,  and  weakness  on 
the  side  of  private  persons,  it  is  sure  to  happen  that  in  contests 


66  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

between  them  the  public  sympathy  inclines  in  favor  of  the 
weakest  party ;  so  that  the  strength  of  the  one,  is  apt  to  make 
him  weak,  and  the  weakness  of  the  other,  makes  him  strong. 
And  now,  at  this  day,  if  a  politician  can  get  up  a  cry  of  perse- 
cution to  operate  in  his  favor,  it  is  a  tower  of  strength ;  although 
in  truth  he  be  only  suffering  an  exposure  of  his  folly  or  villany. 

The  evidence  before  the  committee  undoubtedly  showed  great 
mismanagement  of  the  bank.  But  a  committee  of  investigation 
had  been  packed  for  the  purpose,  and  such  was  the  influence  of 
a  combination  of  the  officers  of  even  an  insolvent  bank,  that  a 
report  was  made  without  hesitation  against  the  Governor's 
charges.  Such  was  the  influence  of  a  bank  conducted  by  public 
officers,  being  the  first,  but  not  the  last  time  in  the  history  of 
Illinois,  in  which  it  was  proved  that  any  considerable  number 
of  men  of  influence,  acting  in  combination,  to  whom  the  monied 
affairs  of  the  State  are  entrusted,  are  above  all  accountability  ;  for 
which  reason  it  has  not  as  yet  been  safe  for  the  State  to  have 
any  great  complicated  interests  to  be  managed  by  public  offi- 
cers ;  nor  was  it  the  last  time,  when  it  has  been  proved  that  any 
considerable  combination  of  men  are  irresistible,  and  not  to  be 
made  accountable  when  associated  to  commit  crime,  or  to  pro- 
cure impunity  from  punishment.  See  future  chapters  upon  the 
history  of  banking  in  this  State,  fund  commissioners,  internal 
improvements,  mobs  and  Mormons,  for  this  proof. 

It  was  during  Gov.  Edwards'  administration  in  the  summer 
of  1827,  that  the  first  Indian  disturbances  occurred,  since  the 
war  of  1812.  This  was  called  the  Winnebago  war.  The  Win- 
nebagoes,  Sacs  and  Foxes,  Sioux,  Menominies,  and  other  north- 
ern nations  towards  the  head  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  had  been 
at  war  with  each  other*  most  of  the  time  for  more  than  a  centu- 
ry ;  and  the  United  States  had  undertaken  to  act  as  mediators 
between  them,  and  restore  peace.  In  fact,  it  has  been  the  policy 
of  the  United  States  government  latterly,  to  compel  the  Indian 
tribes  to  live  in  peace  with  one  another ;  for  experience  has 


HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS.  67 

shown  that  war  cannot  exist  amongst  the  Indians  without  its 
being  inconvenient  and  dangerous  to  white  people.  But  despite 
all  the  remonstrances  of  the  United  States  government,  hostili- 
ties were  continued,  and  murders  frequently  committed.  In 
the  summer  of  this  year,  a  party  of  twenty-four  Chippeways 
were  surprised  by  a  war  party  of  the  Winnebagoes,  and  eight 
of  them  were  killed  or  wounded.  The  United  States  command- 
er at  Saint  Peter's,  caused  four  of  the  offending  Winnebagoes  to 
be  arrested  and  delivered  to  the  Chippeways,  by  whom  they 
were  shot  for  the  murder.  The  white  people  had  also  a  little  before 
begun  to  overrun  the  Winnebago  lands  in  the  lead  mines  above 
Galena ;  many  of  the  miners  having  pushed  their  searches  for 
mineral  as  far  as  the  Wisconsin  river.  This  was  a  further 
source  of  irritation  to  the  Winnebagoes.  Red  Bird,  a  Winne- 
bago chief,  was  determined  to  revenge  the  shooting  of  the  four 
Winnebagoes,  and  for  this  purpose  he  lead  a  war  party  against 
the  Chippeways,  by  whom  he  was  defeated ;  and  now  returning 
disgraced  and  disappointed  of  his  vengeance,  he  resolved  to  re- 
pair his  disaster  by  an  attack  on  the  white  people  who  had 
abetted  his  enemies,  and,  as  he  "believed,  invaded  his  country. 
On  the  27th  of  June,  two  white  men  were  killed  and  another 
wounded,  near  Prairie  Du  Chien ;  and  on  the  30th  of  July,  two 
keel-boats  carrying  supplies  to  Fort  Snelling,  situate  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Peter's,  were  attacked  by  the  Indians,  and  two 
of  the  crew  were  killed  and  four  wounded. 

The  intelligence  of  these  murders  alarmed  the  frontier  settle- 
ments at  Galena,  and  in  the  mining  country  around  it.  Galena, 
as  a  town,  had  been  settled  about  eighteen  months  before.  Col. 
James  Johnson  of  Kentucky,  had  gone  there  with  a  party  of 
miners  in  1824,  and  had  opened  a  lead  mine  about  one  mile 
above  the  present  town.  His  great  success  drew  others  there 
in  1825 ;  and  in  1826  and  1827,  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
persons  from  Illinois  and  Missouri,  went  to  the  Galena  country 
to  work  the  lead  mines.  It  was  estimated  that  the  number  of 


68  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

miners  in  the  mining  country  in  1827,  was  six  or  seven  thou- 
sand. The  Illinoisans  run  up  the  Mississippi  river  in  steam- 
boats in  the  spring  season,  worked  the  lead  mines  during  warm 
weather,  and  then  run  down  the  river  again  to  their  homes,  in 
the  fall  season ;  thus  establishing,  as  was  supposed,  a  similitude 
between  their  migratory  habits  and  those  of  the  fishy  tribe 
called  "  Suckers."  For  which  reason  the  Illinoisans  were  called 
"  Suckers,"  a  name  which  has  stuck  to  them  ever  since.  There 
is  another  account  of  the  origin  of  the  nick-name  "  Suckers,"  as  ap- 
plied to  the  people  of  Illinois.  It  is  said  that  the  south  part  of 
the  State  was  originally  settled  by  the  poorer  class  of  people 
from  the  slave  States,  where  the  tobacco  plant  was  extensively 
cultivated.  They  were  such  as  were  not  able  to  own  slaves  in  a 
slave  State,  and  came  to  Illinois  to  get  away  from  the  imperious 
domination  of  their  wealthy  neighbors.  The  tobacco  plant  has 
many  sprouts  from  the  roots  and  main  stem,  which  if  not  strip- 
ped off,  suck  up  its  nutriment  and  destroy  the  staple.  These 
sprouts  are  called  "  suckers,"  and  are  as  carefully  stripped  off 
from  the  plant  and  thrown  away,  as  is  the  tobacco  worm  itself. 
These  poor  emigrants  from  the*  slave  States  were  jeeringly  and 
derisively  -called  "  suckers,"  because  they  were  asserted  to  be  a 
burthen  upon  the  people  of  wealth ;  and  when  they  removed  to 
Illinois,  they  were  supposed  to  have  stripped  themselves  off 
from  the  parent  stem,  and  gone  away  to  perish  like  the  "  sucker" 
of  the  tobacco  plant.  This  name  was  given  to  the  Illinoisans  at 
the  Galena  mines,  by  the  Missourians.  Analogies  always  abound 
with  those  who  desire  to  be  sarcastic ;  so  the  Illinoisans,  by  way 
of  retaliation,  called  the  Missourians  "  Pukes."  It  had  been 
observed  that  the  lower  lead  mines  in  Missouri  had  sent  up  to 
the  Galena  country  whole  hoards  of  uncouth  ruffians,  from 
which  it  was  inferred  that  Missouri  had  taken  a  "  Puke,"  and 
had  vomited  forth  to  the  upper  lead  mines,  all  her  worst  popu- 
lation. From  thenceforth  the  Missourians  were  regularly  called 
"  Pukes ;"  and  by  these  names  of  "  Suckers  "  and  "  Pukes,"  the 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  69 

Illinoisans  and  Missourians  are  likely  to  be  called,  amongst  the 
vulgar,  forever. 

The  miners  in  all  the  surrounding  country,  upon  the  alarm 
of  Indian  hostilities,  collected  into  Galena.  By  order  of  Gov. 
Edwards,  Gen.  Tom  M.  Neale  marched  there  with  a  regiment 
of  volunteers  from  Sangamore  county  ;  a  considerable  mounted 
force  was  raised  amongst  the  miners,  which  elected  Gen.  Dodge 
to  be  their  commander.  The  inhabitants  fortified  the  town  of 
Galena,  and  Gen.  Atkinson,  of  the  U.  S.  army,  with  a  body  of 
regulars  and  volunteers,  marched  into  the  Winnebago  country, 
on  the  Wisconsin  river,  in  pursuit  of  the  offending  Indians. 
The  chief,  called  "  Red  Bird,"  with  six  other  Indians  of  the 
tribe,  voluntarily  surrendered  themselves  prisoners,  to  save 
their  nation  from  the  miseries  of  war.  They  were  kept  in  jail 
a  long  time  at  Prairie  Du  Chien,  awaiting  their  trials  for  mur- 
der. Some  of  them  were  acquitted,  and  some  were  convicted 
and  executed.  It  was  the  fate  of  "  Red  Bird,"  who  is  described 
as  having  been  a  noble-looking  specimen  of  the  savage  chieftain, 
to  pine  away  and  die  in  prison,  not  from  the  fear  of  death,  but 
by  a  gradual  wasting  away,  the  victim  of  regret  and  sorrow  for 
the  loss  of  his  liberty,  as  he  had  been  accustomed  to  ejijoy  it  in 
the  fresh  green  woods. 

By  the  session  of  the  legislature  of  1828-'9,  the  excitement 
of  the  politicians  at  the  previous  session  had  somewhat  sub- 
sided, as  men  had  time  to  forget  and  forgive  each  other  for  the 
causes  of  their  animosity.  Gov.  Edwards,  in  the  electioneering 
campaign  previous  to  his  election,  had  run  athwart  the  views 
and  conduct  of  many  of  his  best  friends,  by  attacking  the  vari- 
ous public  abuses ;  and  his  attempt  to  impeach  the  managers 
of  the  old  State  bank  had  resulted  in  a  signal  failure.  The 
lieutenant-governor,  Kinney,  one  of  his  opponents,  truly  said  of 
him,  "  that  he  was  like  unto  an  old  crippled  horse,  which  being 
no  longer  able  to  jump  a  fence,  had  fallen  over  into  a  corn-field, 
but  was  hurt  so  much  by  the  fall  that  he  was  not  able  to  eat 


70  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  corn  after  he  had  thus  broken  into  it."  So  the  governor 
sought  to  repair  this  disaster,  by  starting  a  new  hobby  at  this 
session.  It  is  true  that  there  was  but  little  of  political  party  in 
those  days,  but  this  did  not  prevent  great  men  from  having 
their  hobbies,  or  rather  from  proposing  measures  upon  the  con- 
sideration of  which  they  preferred  the  elections  should  turn, 
rather  than  on  their  own  merits ;  and  it  was  singular  that  Gov. 
Edwards,  the  gifted  and  eminent  man  of  talents,  with  every 
personal  advantage  necessary  to  command  success,  should  think 
it  necessary  to  ride  a  hobby.  With  a  person  and  manner  well 
calculated  to  win  popular  admiration  and  favor,  and  talents  ac- 
knowledged by  all  to  be  superior  to  any  of  his  competitors,  it 
was  somewhat  strange  that  he  could  not  be  content  to  throw 
himself -before  the  people  upon  his  own  merits,  upon  his  repu- 
tation for  talents,  as  an  aspirant  for  office.  As  it  was,  his 
course  could  not  be  sensibly  justified  upon  any  ground,  except 
that  of  pointing  the  public  attention  to  matters  with  which  he 
stood  connected,  and  thereby  diverting  it  from  himself. 

Generally  it  is  the  men  without  merit,  the  men  of  small  pre- 
tensions, without  natural  gifts  to  conciliate  favor,  who  ride  hob- 
bies and  most  insist  upon  measures  as  artificial  helps  to  dis- 
tinction. But  if  such  appliances  are  necessary  to  make  small 
things  great,  so  they  may  be  used  to  lift  great  weights  from  the 
low  level  of  bad  character,  to  high  and  respectable  positions  in 
government* 

The  hobby  which  Gov,  Edwards  selected  on  this  occasion, 
was  to  claim  for  the  State  all  the  public  lands  of  the  United 
States  lying  within  its  limits.  This  claim  was  put  forth  in  his 
message  at  this  session  with  great  earnestness,  and  is  elabo- 
rately sustained  upon  the  ground  of  State  sovereignty,  to  which 
eminent  domain  it  must  necessarily  belong ;  and  upon  the 
ground  that  Illinois  had  been  admitted  into  the  Union  upon  an 
equal  footing  with  the  original  States. 

1  have  been  informed  on  good  authority,  that  the  governor 


HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS.  71 

put  forth  this  claim,  without  having  any  confidence  in  its  valid- 
ity, and  that  it  was  fabricated  in  the  first  instance  only  to  em- 
barrass his  enemies.  The  question  was  new ;  it  had  never  been 
discussed  before  the  people,  and  it  was  unknown  whether  they 
would  regard  it  with  favor  or  otherwise.  However,  the  gov- 
ernor's enemies  were  not  to  be  entrapped ;  they  were  too  cun- 
ning to  oppose  what  might  be  a  popular  measure,  out  of  mere 
spite  against  its  author.  It  is  believed  that  no  one  had  any 
confidence  in  the  claim,  and  yet  the  legislature  were  nearly 
unanimous  in  sustaining  it.  But  this  resulted  in  breaking  down 
the  opposition  to  Gov.  Edwards'  administration,  for  the  mem- 
bers, thinking  themselves  compelled  to  support  his  humbug, 
were  more  than  ordinarily  docile  and  obsequious,  supporting 
all  his  measures  and  electing  all  his  candidates  to  office. 
Having  laid  a  broad  foundation  to  enrich  the  State  with  the 
public  lands,  they  returned  to  their  constituents  swelling  with 
importance  and  high  expectations  of  future  favor.  But  the  peo- 
ple were  not  such  big  fools  as  they  were  believed  to  be,  for 
many  of  them  were  indifferent  on  the  subject,  and  most  of  them 
laughed  at  their  representatives  in  very  scorn  of  their  preten- 
sions. Governor  Edwards  died  of  the  cholera  in  Belleville,  in 
the  year  1833.  The  county  of  Edwards,  in  the  Wabash  coun- 
ty, and  the  town  of  Edwardsville,  in  Madison  county,  were 
named  in  honor  of  him  ;  and  I  had  forgotten  to  mention  in  its 
proper  place,  that  the  county  of  Coles,  on  the  head  waters  of 
the  Embarrass  river  (pronounced  Ambraw)  was  named  in 
honor  of  Governor  Coles. 

In  looking  back  over  this  period  of  time,  and  calling  to  mind 
the  prominent  actors  in  the  scenes  of  that  day,  the  fierce  strug- 
gles and  quarrels  amongst  them,  the  loves  and  the  hatreds,  the 
hopes,  fears,  successes  and  disappointments  of  men,  recently, 
but  now  no  more  on  the  stage  of  action,  one  cannot  but  be 
struck  with  the  utter  nothingness  of  mere  contests  for  office. 
Of  the  men  who  then  figured,  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  Gov.  Coles, 


72  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Chief  Justice  Philips,  Henry  Starr,  and  Judge  Hall,  have  left 
the  State ;  John  McLean,  Morris  Birkbeck,  Governor  Bond, 
Elias  K.  Kane,  Governor  Edwards,  Daniel  P.  Cook,  Governor 
Duncan,  Chief  Justice  Reynolds,  George  Forquer,  Samuel 
M:Roberts,  and  John  Yorke  Sawyer,  are  dead,  reposing  in  their 
graves.  But  whilst  they  lived  they  were  full  of  bustle  and  agi- 
tation, contending  with  each  other  for  pre-eminence  and  place, 
as  if  they  divided  the  earth  amongst  them,  and  office  was  im- 
mortal. Since  their  time,  they  have  had  successors  in  the  con- 
test who  have  fluttered  and  shone  for  a  few  years,  and  then  dis- 
appeared forever,  either  by  death,  removal  from  the  country, 
or  loss  of  popularity.  It  is  somewhat  melancholy,  but  highly 
instructive,  to  look  back  upon  the  long  list  of  popular  names 
of  those  who,  for  a  time,  rioted  in  power,  with  a  fair  prospect 
of  continued  pre-eminence,  but  who  have  gone  the  way  of  all 
flesh,  to  the  grave,  or  to  oblivion,  the  way  of  the  great  mass  of 
politicians. 

About  these  times  political  parties  began  to  form  in  Illinois. 
Hitherto  Governor  Edwards,  Daniel  P.  Cook,  and  Judge  Pope, 
had  constituted  the  heads  of  one  party  ;  whilst  Governor  Bond, 
Elias  K.  Kane,  John  M'Lean,  Judge  Thomas,  and  Judge  Smith, 
constituted  the  heads  of  the  other.  The  parties  which  called 
forth  their  struggles  were  merely  personal,  and  for  men ;  meas- 
ures and  principles  of  national  politics  had  nothing  to  do  with 
them.  Upon  the  election  of  Mr.  Monroe  in  1816,  and  during 
his  long,  successful,  and  glorious  administration,  the  angry  ele- 
ments of  party  were  quelled,  and  the  nation  rested  in  peace. 
The  noise  of  the  battle  between  federalist  and  republican  had 
never  reached  Illinois.  It  is  true  that  during  the  war  of  1812 
we  had  heard  a  rumor  of  the  existence  of  such  a  people  as  the 
federalists  in  the  old  States.  We  had  heard  of  their  opposition 
to  the  war,  of  the  Hartford  Convention,  and  of  the  burning  of 
blue  lights  in  Connecticut  as  a  signal  to  the  enemy,  and  the 
unsophisticated  republicans  of  the  territory,  being  at  war  with, 


M 

HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  73 

and  surrounded  by  thousands  of  hostile  savages,  naturally  con- 
cluded that  the  federalists  were  second  in  atrocity  only  to  the 
great  beast  with  the  seven  heads  and  ten  horns.  A  federalist 
was  hated  with  a  most  fervent  hatred,  as  being  an  enemy  to  his 
country,  and  an  aider  and  abettor  of  the  savages  in  slaughter- 
ing defenceless  women  and  children ;  but  as  there  were  none 
of  them  in  Illinois,  it  was  impossible  to  rally  parties  here  upon 
the  principles  of  federalists  and  republicans.  I  have  already 
mentioned  Daniel  P.  Cook  as  being  the  first  attorney  general. 
He  was  elected  to  Congress  in  1819,  and  was  re-elected  bi-en- 
nially  until  1826,  when  he  was  beaten  by  the  late  Gov.  Dun- 
can. Mr.  Cook  was  a  man  of  eminent  talents  and  accomplish- 
ments. In  person  he  was  small  and  erect.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  social  powers,  wholly  without  guile,  and  kindness,  sin- 
cerity, and  truth  animated  every  motion  of  his  body,  making 
his  face  to  shine,  and  giving  his  manners  a  grace  and  a  charm 
which  the  highest  breeding  will  not  always  give.  He  was  a 
complete  gentleman,  and  in  all  his  electioneering  intercourse 
with  the  people  he  had  the  rare  talent  of  making  himself  sin- 
gularly acceptable  and  agreeable,  without  stooping  to  anything 
low,  or  relaxing  in  the  slightest  degree  the  decorum  or  the  car- 
riage of  a  high-bred  gentleman.  His  mind  was  uncommonly 
supple,  wiry,  and  active,  and  he  could,  as  he  pleased,  shoot  his 
thoughts  readily  over  the  great  field  of  knowledge.  As  a 
speaker,  his  voice,  though  not  strong,  was  soft,  melodious,  and 
of  great  compass  and  variety  of  tone.  He  rose  to  a  high 
reputation  in  Congress,  and  the  last  session  he  was  there,  he 
acted  as  chairman  of  the  important  committee  of  Ways  and 
Means  of  the  lower  house.  To  his  services,  at  this  last  session, 
the  people  of  Illinois  are  indebted  for  the  donation  by  Con- 
gress of  300,000  acres  of  land,  for  the  construction  of  the  Illi- 
nois and  Michigan  canal.  For  him  the  county  of  Cook  was 
appropriately  named,  as  more  than  half  of  its  great  prosperity 
is  owing  to  his  exertions  in  Congress  in  favor  of  the  canal. 

4 


74  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

The  defeat  of  Mr.  Cook,  in  1826,  by  Gov.  Duncan,  makes  a 
kind  of  turning  point  in  the  politics  of  Illinois.  It  is  a  new  era 
in  our  elections,  and  marks  the  origin,  though  not  the  comple- 
tion, of  a  great  revolution  in  men's  motives  for  political  action. 
It  is  the  point  where  the  old  system  of  electing  public  officers 
upon  merit  and  personal  preference  was  about  to  terminate, 
and  the  new  principle  of  "  measures,  not  men,"  was  to  begin. 
The  opponents  of  Mr.  Cook  had  run  a  candidate  against  him  at 
every  election ;  first  John  M'Lean,  after  him  Elias  K.  Kane, 
and  after  him  Gov.  Bond.  They  had  even  endeavored  to  make 
Illinois  a  slave  State,  somewhat  with  a  view  to  his  eventual 
defeat.  But  they  had  failed  on  every  occasion.  Defeat  only 
inspired  new  courage,  and  prompted  them  to  the  use  of  addi- 
tional energy.  They  kept  up  their  organization  from  year  to 
year,  and  as  parties  were  founded  on  the  principle  of  personal 
affection  to  one  set  of  men,  and  personal  hatred  of  another,  and 
as  men  are  more  attached  to  their  friends  than  to  their  principles, 
it  followed  that  there  was  less  defection  and  treachery  in  the 
ranks,  and  more  fidelity  and  devotion  to  leaders,  than  have  been 
since,  under  the  new  system. 

At  last  the  time  came  for  the  Cook  and  Edwards  party  to  go 
down,  and  their  enemies  to  rise.  And  this  was  the  occasion 
of  the  revolution.  Gen.  Jackson,  John  Quincy  Adams,  Wil- 
liam H.  Crawford,  and  Henry  Clay,  were  candidates  for  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  at  the  election  of  1824.  No  one  of 
the  candidates  received  a  majority  of  the  electoral  votes.  The 
election,  therefore,  came  into  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  in 
Congress.  Mr.  Cook  gave  the  vote  of  Illinois  to  Mr.  Adams, 
by  which  he  was  elected.  Gen.  Jackson  had  received  more  of 
the  electoral  votes  than  any  other  candidate.  He  had  received 
two  in  Illinois,  and  Mr.  Adams  had  received  but  one.  The 
people  believed  that  Gen.  Jackson  had  been  cheated  out  of  his 
election  by  bargain,  intrigue,  and  corruption  ;  and  whether  their 
belief  was  well  or  ill-founded,  they  resented  his  defeat  with  a 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  75 

- 
generous  indignation  which  consumed  all  opposition,  and  which 

has  continued  to  burn  and  consume  until  this  day.  The  old 
opposition  to  the  Cook  and  Edwards  party,  and  all  the  Craw- 
ford men,  now  rallied  in  favor  of  Gen.  Jackson.  They  brought 
out  the  late  Gov.  Duncan  as  a  candidate  against  Mr.  Cook, 
and  by  means  of  Gen.  Jackson's  great  popularity,  and  the  re- 
sentment of  the  people  against  the  vote  for  Mr.  Adams,  he  was 
elected  by  a  small  majority. 

At  this  time  Gov  Duncan  was  a  thorough  Jackson  man,  as 
the  friends  of  Gen.  Jackson  were  then  called.  He  was  what 
was  called  an  original  Jackson  man,  that  is,  he  had  been  for 
Gen.  Jackson  the  first  time  Gen.  Jackson  was  a  candidate. 
He  was  attached  to  Gen.  Jackson  from  admiration  of  his  char- 
acter, and  the  glory  of  his  military  achievements.  As  yet, 
there  were  no  principles  or  measures,  nor  even  the  names  of 
federalist  and  republican,  involved  in  the  election.  Gen.  Jack- 
son had  not  as  yet  declared  his  opinions  on  the  tariff,  except 
that  he  was  in  favor  of  "  a  judicious  tariff;"  nor  upon  internal 
improvements  by  Congress,  the  bankrupt  law,  the  distribution 
of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  ;  nor  upon  the 
constitutionality  or  expediency  of  a  United  States  Bank.  Nor 
did  parties,  in  Illinois,  rally  upon  these  subjects  for  some  years 
afterwards.  A  few  years  after  Gov.  Duncan's  first  election, 
Gen.  Jackson  attacked  the  United  States  Bank,  vetoed  its  char- 
ter, and  removed  from  it  the  deposits  of  the  public  moneys. 
He  also  vetoed  appropriations  for  the  Maysville  road,  and  for 
the  improvement  of  the  Wabash  river.  Gov.  Duncan  now, 
differing  from  him  in  opinion  on  these  subjects,  began  to  with- 
draw from  his  support ;  and  his  aversion  to  Gen.  Jackson's  ad- 
ministration was  finally  completed  by  his  objections  to  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  an  influential  favorite  of  the  President,  likely  to 
succeed  him  in  office,  and  in  the  control  of  the  Jackson  party. 
A  public  man  has  a  perfect  right  to  his  own  opinions  and 
predilections.  Gov.  Duncan  was  a  brave,  honest  man,  a  gen- 


76  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

tleman  in  his  intercourse  with  society,  and  possessed  a  rare 
talent  for  conciliating  affection  and  inspiring  confidence.  But 
his  great  error  was  in  becoming  attached  to  a  party  and  a 
cause,  in  the  first  instance,  without  knowing  the  principles  by 
which  he  was  to  be  governed.  Thousands  of  others  were  in 
the  same  predicament,  many  of  whom,  both  before  and  after 
Gov.  Duncan,  left  as  he  did,  when  the  Jackson  policy  began 
to  be  developed  ;  and  many,  equally  ignorant  when  they  began 
in  favor  of  Gen.  Jackson,  finding  themselves  suited  by  his 
measures  and  principles,  adhered  to  him  with  more  devotion 
than  ever.  Afterwards,  when  Gov.  Duncan  had  thoroughly 
identified  himself  with  the  opponents  of  Gen.  Jackson,  an  old 
friend  of  his  rebuked  him  and  lamented  over  him  as  follows  : 
"  Now,  Gov.  Duncan,  we  Jackson  men  took  you  up  when  you 
was  young,  poor,  and  friendless ;  we  put  you  into  high  office, 
and  enabled  you  to  make  a  fortune  ;  and  for  all  this  you  have 
deserted  us,  and  gone  over  to  the  Adams  men.  You  was  like 
a  poor  colt.  We  caught  you  up  out  of  a  thicket,  fed  you  on 
the  best,  combed  the  burrs  out  of  your  mane  and  tail,  and 
made  a  fine  horse  of  you ;  and  now  you  have  strayed  away 
from  your  owners."  Such  were,  and  are  likely  to  be,  the 
opinions  of  mankind  upon  changes  of  political  relations.  No 
allowance  is  made  for  the  altered  circumstances  of  the  times, 
for  the  oblivion  of  old  questions  of  dispute,  or  the  springing  up 
of  new  ones  not  dreamed  of  in  former  contests.  Neither  is 
any  allowance  made  amongst  fierce  partisans  for  the  fallibility 
of  human  judgment,  nor  for  the  results  of  a  more  matured, 
careful,  and  candid  examination  of  political  questions.  Man- 
kind adopt  their  principles  when  they  are  young,  when  the  pas- 
sions are  strong,  the  judgment  weak,  the  mind  misinformed, 
and  are  generally  influenced  in  their  adoption  by  mere  prejudice 
arising  from  attachment  to  friends.  The  mind  has  nothing  to 
do  with  it.  If  afterwards  they  attain  to  more  knowledge  and 
capacity,  they  are  required  to  persevere  in  their  first  impress- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  77 

ions,  or  to  be  branded  with  inconsistency.  Without  asserting 
that  Gov.  Duncan  was  right  in  his  change,  for  such  would  not 
be  my  opinion,  yet  it  would  seem  from  his  example  and  that 
of  many  others,  that  it  would  be  better  for  politicians,  if  they 
could  reverse  the  order  of  their  existence,  come  into  the  world 
in  their  old  age,  and  go  out  when  they  are  young.  As  it  really 
is,  a  man  comes  into  the  world  without  knowledge,  experience, 
or  capacity  to  think,  and  before  he  gets  them,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  his  attachments  to  men,  he  is  required  to  make  up  his 
opinions  upon  all  the  grave  questions  which  are  to  affect  him- 
self or  his  country.  He  is  to  take  a  party  name,  and  however 
much  he  may  afterwards  become  enlightened,  or  parties  shift 
grounds,  he  is  never  to  change,  under  the  penalty  of  being 
branded  as  a  traitor  to  his  party.  But  perhaps  this  is  one  of 
the  means  appointed  by  providence,  and  implanted  in  man's 
nature,  to  keep  the  opinions  of  the  men  of  the  governing  or 
majority  party  united,  and  give  some  stability  to  the  councils 
of  republican  government.  The  fact  that  there  is  such  a  num- 
ber who  even  down  to  old  age  are  never  capable  of  forming 
opinions  of  their  own,  would  seem  to  favor  such  a  conclusion. 

In  the  year  1828,  and  afterwards,  the  policy  of  selling  the 
school  lands  and  borrowing  the  school  fund,  was  adopted. 
From  the  very  first  organization  of  the  State  government,  the 
legislature  had  been  too  fearful  of  its  popularity  to  provide  ade- 
quate revenues  by  taxation.  At  first  the  State  treasury  relied 
upon  taxes  upon  lands  in  the  military  tract,  then  unsettled  and 
owned  by  non-residents.  The  land  tax  in  other  parts  was  given 
to  the  counties  to  aid  them  in  building  court-houses  and  jails, 
and  paying  county  expenses.  This  system  kept  the  State  treas- 
ury in  debt.  But  it  so  happened  that  Congress  had  donated  to 
the  State  a  township  of  land  for  a  seminary  of  learning ;  three 
per  cent,  of  the  nett  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  public  land,  and 
the  sixteenth  section  in  every  township,  for  the  support  of  com- 
mon schools ;  that  is,  they  had  granted  to  the  State  one  whole 


78  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

township  of  six  miles  square,  and  the  thirty-sixth  part  of  all  the 
residue  of  the  land  in  the  State,  and  three  per  cent,  of  the  nett 
proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  remainder  to  promote  education  in 
this  new  country.  This  was  a  most  magnificent  provision  for 
education.  The  sixteenth  section,  amounting  to  near  a  million 
of  acres,  is  destined  to  be  worth  a  large  sum  of  money.  The 
man  is  now  alive  and  full  grown,  who  will  see  the  day  when 
these  lands  will  be  worth  from  fifteen  to  twenty  millions  of 
dollars.  So  far  as  the  sales  have  proceeded,  it  may  be  judged 
that  the  whole  of  them  will  not  sell  for  more  than  one  million 
and-a-half,  or  two  millions  of  dollars ;  and  before  the  end  of  this 
generation,  it  is  to  be  feared  that,  under  the  system  adopted  of 
selling,  and  then  lending  out  the  price,  most  frequently  on  per- 
sonal security,  there  will  be  no  trace  or  vestige  of  this  beneficent 
donation  remaining  either  in  money  or  lands. 

Laws  were  first  made  for  leasing  out  these  lands,  the  rents 
to  be  paid  in  improvements ;  but  the  lessees  soon  desired  a 
more  permanent  title.  Every  township  throughout  the  inhab- 
ited parts  had  settlers  on  the  school  section,  either  as  lessees 
or  squatters,  who  were  entitled  to  a  vote  at  elections ;  and  in  a 
newly-settled  country  where  the  whole  people  came  merely  to 
better  their  individual  fortunes  as  to  property,  with  but  little 
devotion  to  the  public  interest,  or  to  that  of  posterity,  these 
lessees  and  squatters  were  likely  to  have  great  influence  in  gov- 
ernment. And  this  is  only  one  instance  out  of  a  thousand  in 
Illinois  in  which  a  very  small  minority,  united  by  interest,  pas- 
sion, prejudice,  or  clanship,  and  acting  with  bold  vigor,  has 
controlled  the  majority,  and  sacrificed  the  public  interest  to  in- 
dividual interest.  I  speak  what  I  know  when  I  say  that  the 
laws  to  sell  school  lands  were  passed  to  please  the  people  who 
were  settled  on  them,  who  wanted  to  purchase  them  at  the  Con- 
gress price,  whilst  the  other  inhabitants  being  divided  into  little 
factions,  and  thinking  more  of  success  at  one  election,  than  the 
interest  of  all  posterity;  and  acting  upon  the  principle  that, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  79 

what  is  everybody's  business  is  nobody's  business,  aided  or  suf- 
fered the  mischief  to  be  done.  It  is  true  that  other  reasons 
were  alleged  in  the  legislature.  It  was  said  that  if  these  lands 
were  not  sold,  the  children  of  that  generation  must  lose  all 
benefit  from  them,  and  their  value  would  be  destroyed  by  be- 
ing stripped  of  their  timber.  These  were  the  reasons  assigned 
in  debate,  but  they  were  not  the  true  reasons  for  these  laws.  It 
has  been  often  the  case  in  an  Illinois  legislature  that  a  majority 
of  the  members,  for  secret  and  selfish  reasons  of  their  own,  first 
resolve  upon  a  measure  and  then  invent  the  reasons  to  be  given 
to  the  public  for  it  afterwards ;  and  these  invented  and  artificial 
reasons  are  always  the  reasons  assigned  in  debate.  So,  too,  to 
relieve  the  State  treasury  from  debt,  the  legislature,  to  save  the 
popularity  of  members  by  avoiding  the  just  and  wholesome 
measure  of  levying  necessary  taxes,  passed  laws  for  the  sale  of 
the  seminary  township,  and  for  borrowing  the  proceeds  of  the 
sale  and  the  three  per  cent,  school  fund ;  and  for  paying  them 
out  as  other  public  moneys,  and  for  paying  an  annual  interest 
thereon  to  the  several  counties,  for  the  use  of  schools.  By 
which  means  the  debt  of  the  State,  for  these  moneys  alone, 
amounted,  in  1842,  to  $472,493.  Thus,  as  I  conscientiously  be- 
lieve, was  a  township  of  land  sacrificed  at  low  prices ;  the  school 
fund  robbed,  and  a  debt  of  near  half  a  million  of  dollars  fixed 
upon  the  State,  rather  than  that  the  members  would  run  the 
risk  of  not  getting  back  to  the  legislature,  or  of  being  defeated 
for  some  other  office.  This  money  was  paid  into  the  treasury 
in  sums  averaging  $20,000  per  annum.  The  annual  interest 
now  paid  on  it  is  $28,000.  And  so,  to  save  the  popularity  of 
members  of  the  legislature,  the  State  has  received  about  $20,000 
a  year  for  about  twenty-five  years ;  by  which  she  has  become 
bound  to  pay  $28,000  per  annum,  forever ;  the  difference  against 
the  State  being  the  difference  between  twenty  thousand  dollars 
borrowed,  and  twenty-eight  thousand  dollars  annual  interest ; 
and  the  difference  between  eternity  and  tweirty-five  years.  The 


80  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

only  good  which  can  result  from  these  unwise  and  selfish  meas- 
ures is,  that  they  will  inevitably  compel  the  State  into  a  system 
of  taxation  for  the  support  of  schools ;  and  the  payment  of  in- 
terest on  these  borrowed  moneys  will  furnish  the  pretext  and 
excuse  for  it. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Review—Election  of  State  Treasurer  in  1827 ;'  election  and  defalcation  of  Sheriffs- 
Courts— Judges— Sentence  of  Green— Instructions  to  juries— The  hung  jury— Law 
of  1840— Eminent  lawyers— Character  of  litigation— Election  by  ballot— The  keep- 
dark  system— The  "  butcher-knife  boys  "—Influences  in  the  Legislature— Greasing 
and  swallowing,  &c— Aims  of  politicians  and  of  the  people — Anecdote  of  Sen- 
ator Cro/.ier— Good  and  bad  self-government— Rule  to  test  the  capacity  of  the  people 
for  either— Educated  ministers  of  the  Gospel— Ill-will  towards  them  of  some  of 
the  old  ministers — Room  enough  for  both— Benevolent  institutions  and  education 
—Colleges— Change  of  dress  among  young  people— Regrets  of  the  old  folks — 
Effects  of  attending  Church  on  Sundays— Effects  of  not  attending  Church  on  Sun- 
days upon  young  people— Progress  in  commerce— Character  of  first  merchants- 
Selling  for  money  supplied  by  emigration— Nothing  raised  for  or  shipped  to  foreign 
markets — Flat-boats — Farmers  taking  their  own  crops  to  market,  and  bad  effects  of 
it — Foreign  markets — Steamboats  and  high  rates  of  exchange  encourage  the  mer- 
chants to  become  exporters— Bad  effects  of  farmers  holding  their  produce  from 
market,  expecting  a  higher  price — This  practice  contrasted  with  the  New  England 
practice  of  selling  at  the  market  price — Good  effects  of  this  practice— Prosperity  of 
northern  Illinois  in  a  great  measure  owing  to  this. 

NOTHING  more  of  importance  occurred  in  the  history  of  the 
State  than  what  is  related  in  the  last  chapter,  until  1830.  A 
few  miscellaneous  facts  and  a  slight  review  of  the  progress  of 
society  and  the  workings  of  government  during  this  time,  may 
not  be  uninteresting. 

In  1827,  there  was  a  very  excited  election  before  the  legisla- 
ture for  a  State  treasurer,  in  which  the  former  incumbent  of  the 
office  was  defeated.  After  the  election  was  over  the  Assembly 
immediately  adjourned ;  but  before  the  members  got  out  of  the 
house,  the  unsuccessful  candidate  walked  into  their  chamber 
and  administered  personal  chastisement  upon  four  of  the  largest 
and  strongest  of  his  opponents,  who  had  voted  against  him. 
The  members  generally  broke  one  way  or  another  out  of  the 

4* 


82  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

house,  and  fled  like  sheep  from  a  fold,  invaded  by  a  wolf.  No 
steps  were  ever  taken  to  bring  the  offender  to  punishment, 
but  the  same  session  he  was  appointed  clerk  of  the  circuit 
court,  and  recorder  for  Jo  Davies'  county. 

During  all  this  time,  from  1818  to  1830,  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  sheriffs  elected  by  the  people,  were  defaulters  to  the 
State  or  to  counties  for  taxes,  or  to  individuals  for  moneys  col- 
lected on  execution.  The  practice  was  to  take  the  moneys  col- 
lected on  execution,  and  with  them  pay  up  for  taxes,  for  without 
getting  certificates  of  having  paid  all  moneys  charged  to  them 
for  taxes,  the  sheriffs  were  not  allowed  to  be  commissioned 
when  re-elected.  The  people  generally  felt  but  little  interest 
in  the  collection  of  moneys  for  debt,  and  paying  it  over,  so  that 
a  defalcation  here  was  not  apt  to  injure  the  popularity  of  an 
officer,  who  would  tend  the  people  money  to  pay  their  taxes, 
and  who  was  compelled,  by  his  official  duty,  to  be  constantly 
around  among  them,  giving  him  ample  opportunity  to  make 
friends,  contradict  charges,  and  thus  secure  his  election. 

In  those  days  justice  was  administered  without  much  show, 
parade,  or  ceremony.  In  some  countries,  the  people  are  so 
ignorant  and  stupid,  that  they  have  to  be  humbugged  into  a 
respect  for  the  institutions  and  tribunals  of  the  State.  The 
judges  and  lawyers  wear  robes,  and  gowns,  and  wigs,  and  ap- 
pear before  them  with  all  the  "  excellent  gravity"  described  by 
Lord  Coke.  Wherever  means  like  these  are  really  necessary 
to  give  authority  to  government,  it  would  seem  that  the  bulk 
of  the  people  must  be  in  a  semi-barbarous  state  at  least,  and 
must  so  lack  intelligence  and  capacity,  as  to  be  influenced  more 
by  mere  outside  show  than  by  the  realities  of  wisdom  and  real 
dignity  of  character  in  the  judge.  The  judges  in  early  times  in 
Illinois,  were  gentlemen  of  considerable  learning  and  much  good 
sense,  and  held  their  courts  mostly  in  log-houses,  or  in  the  bar- 
roomB  of  taverns,  fitted  up  with  a  temporary  bench  for  the 
judge,  and  chairs  or  benches  for  the  lawyers  and  jurors.  At 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  83 

the  first  circuit  court  in  Washington  county,  held  by  Judge 
John  Reynolds,  the  sheriff,  on  opening  the  court,  went  out  into 
the  court-yard  and  said  to  the  people :  "  Boys,  come  in,  our 
John  is  going  to  hold  court."  This  was  the  proclamation  for 
opening  the  court.  In  general,  the  judges  were  averse  to  de- 
ciding questions  of  law  if  they  could  possibly  avoid  doing  so. 
They  did  not  like  the  responsibility  of  offending  one  or  the 
other  of  the  parties,  and  preferred  to  submit  everything  they 
could  to  be  decided  by  the  jury.  They  never  gave  instructions 
to  a  jury  unless  expressly  called  for ;  and  then  only  upon  the 
points  of  law  raised  by  counsel  in  asking  for  them.  They  never 
commented  upon  the  evidence,  or  undertook  to  show  the  jury 
what  inferences  and  presumptions  might  be  drawn  from  it ;  for 
which  reason  they  delivered  their  instructions  hypothetically, 
stating  them  thus :  "  If  the  jury  believe  from  the  evidence  that 
such  a  matter  is  proved,  then  the  law  is  so  and  so."  This  was 
a  clear  departure  from  the  practice  of  the  judges  in  England 
and  most  of  the  United  States  ;  but  the  new  practice  suited  the 
circumstances  of  the  country.  It  undoubtedly  requires  the 
highest  order  of  talent  in  a  judge  to  "  sum  up"  the  evidence 
rightly  to  a  jury,  so  as  to  do  justice  to  the  case,  and  injustice  to 
neither  party.  Such  talent  did  not  exist  to  be  put  on  the  bench 
in  these  early  times ;  or  at  least  the  judges  must  have  modestly 
believed  that  they  did  not  possess  it. 

I  knew  one  judge,  who  when  asked  for  instructions,  would 
rub  his  head  and  the  side  of  his  face  with  his  hand,  as  if  per- 
plexed, and  say  to  the  lawyers,  "  Why,  gentlemen,  the  jury 
understand  the  case  ;  they  need  no  instructions ;  no  doubt  they 
will  do  justice  between  the  parties."  This  same  judge  presided 
at  a  court  in  which  a  man  named  Green  was  convicted  of  mur- 
der ;  and  it  became  his  unpleasant  duty  to  pronounce  sentence 
of  death  upon  the  culprit.  He  called  the  prisoner  before  him, 
and  said  to  him  :  "Mr.  Green,  the  jury  in  their  verdict  say  you 
are  guilty  of  murder,  and  the  law  says  you  are  to  be  hung. 


84  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Now  I  want  you  and  all  your  friends  down  on  Indian  Creek,  to 
know  that  it  is  not  I  who  condemns  you,  but  it  is  the  jury  and 
the  law.  Mr.  Green,  the  law  allows  you  time  for  preparation, 
and  so  the  court  wants  to  know  what  time  you  would  like  to 
be  hung."  To  this  the  prisoner  replied,  "  May  it  please  the 
court,  I  am  ready  at  any  time ;  those  who  kill  the  body  have 
no  power  to  kill  the  soul ;  my  preparation  is  made,  and  I  am 
ready  to  suffer  at  any  time  the  court  may  appoint."  The  judge 
then  said,  "  Mr.  Green,  you  must  know  that  it  is  a  very  serious 
matter  to  be  hung ;  it  can't  happen  to  a  man  more  than  once 
in  his  life,  and  you  had  better  take  all  the  time  you  can  get ; 
the  court  will  give  you  until  this  day  four  weeks.  Mr.  Clerk, 
look  at  the  almanac,  and  see  whether  this  day  four  weeks  comes 
on  Sunday."  The  clerk  looked  at  the  almanac,  as  directed,  and 
reported  that  "  that  day  four  weeks  came  on  Thursday."  The 
judge  then  said,  "  Mr.  Green,  the  court  gives  you  until  this 
day  four  weeks,  at  which  time  you  are  to  be  hung."  The  case 
was  prosecuted  by  James  Turney,  Esq.,  the  attorney-general  of 
the  State,  who  here  interposed  and  said  :  "  May  it  please  the 
court,  on  solemn  occasions  like  the  present,  when  the  life  of  a 
human  being  is  to  be  sentenced  away  for  crime,  by  an  earthly 
tribunal,  it  is  usual  and  proper  for  courts  to  pronounce  a  formal 
sentence,  in  which  the  leading  features  of  the  crime  shall  be 
brought  to  the  recollection  of  the  prisoner,  a  sense  of  his  guilt 
impressed  upon  his  conscience,  and  in  which  the  prisoner  should 
be  duly  exhorted  to  repentance,  and  warned  against  the  judg- 
ment in  a  world  to  come."  To  this  the  judge  replied :  "  O  ! 
Mr.  Turney,  Mr.  Green  understands  the  whole  matter  as  well 
as  if  I  had  preached  to  him  a  month.  He  knows  he  has  got  to 
be  hung  this  day  four  weeks.  You  understand  it  in  that  way, 
Mr.  Green,  don't  you  ?"  "  Yes,"  said  the  prisoner ;  upon  which 
the  judge  ordered  him  to  be  remanded  to  jail,  and  the  court 
then  adjourned. 

If  some  judges  were  unwilling  to  risk  censure  by  giving  in- 


HISTOEY  OF   ILLINOIS.  85 

structions  to  juries,  there  was  at  least  one  who  was  very  posi- 
tive in  his  mode  of  instructing  them.  This  one  being  more  am- 
bitious to  show  his  learning  and  ability,  gave  very  pointed  in- 
structions on  one  occasion ;  but  the  jury  could  not  agree  on  a 
verdict.  The  judge  asked  to  know  the  cause  of  their  difference, 
whereupon  the  foreman  answered,  with  great  apparent  honesty 
and  simplicity,  "  Why,  judge,  this  'ere  is  the  difficulty.  The 
jury  want  to  know  whether  that  ar  what  you  told  us,  when  we 
first  went  went  out,  was  raly  the  law,  or  whether  it  was  onyjist 
your  notion."  The  judge  of  course  informed  them  that  it  was 
really  the  law,  and  they  found  a  verdict  accordingly. 

Some  other  judges  through  fear  of  doing  wrong,  or  feeling  a 
timid  anxiety  to  avoid  censure  if  they  were  compelled  to  give 
instructions,  which  might  decide  the  verdict  on  one  side,  were 
careful  to  accompany  them  with  such  exceptions  and  explana- 
tions as  served  to  mystify  what  they  had  previously  said,  and 
destroy  its  force  with  the  jury.  Others  again  were  accused  of 
partiality,  and  when  a  principle  of  law  was  in  favor  of  the  party 
whom  they  desired  to  lose  the  case,  they  took  this  mode  when 
compelled  to  give  instructions,  of  rendering  them  of  no  force  or 
value.  To  this  day  some  of  the  judges  are  reluctant  to  give 
proper  instructions  to  juries.  This  arises  from  a  want  of  con- 
fidence felt  by  the  judge  in  his  own  capacity ;  from  a  pusillan- 
imous fear  of  giving  offence,  or  a  desire  to  avoid  doing  any- 
thing in  favor  of  a  side  which  the  judge  has  determined  shall 
not  win  if  he  can  help  it.  It  appears  that  this  practice  must 
have  continued  down  to  a  late  period,  for  the  legislature  of 
1846  passed  a  law,  requiring  all  instructions  to  juries  to  be 
given  in  writing,  and  that  there  should  be  no  exceptions  or  ex- 
planations but  such  as  should  be  given  in  writing  also.  Whether 
this  will  be  an  improvement  of  the  law  remains  to  be  seen. 

In  this  period  there  were  many  eminent  lawyers  in  the  State. 
Messrs.  Cook,  M'Lean,  Starr,  Hears,  Blackwell,  Kane,  Lock- 
wood,  Mills,  and  Chief  Justice  Thomas  Reynolds,  would  have 


86  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

ranked  respectably  as  lawyers  at  any  bar  in  the  United  States. 
The  character  of  the  litigation  was  somewhat  different  from 
what  it  has  been  since.  Except  during  one  time  of  general 
indebtedness,  the  lawsuits  were  principally  small  appeal  cases, 
actions  of  trespass,  trover  replevin,  slander,  indictments  for  as- 
sault and  battery,  affrays,  riots,  selling  liquor  without  license, 
and  card  playing ;  but  there  was  a  natural  leaning  on  the  part 
of  jurors  against  convictions  for  these  minor  offences,  and  so  it 
was  a  rare  thing  that  any  one  was  convicted.  There  was  now 
and  then  an  indictment  for  murder  or  larceny,  and  other  felo- 
nies, but  in  all  cases  of  murder  arising  from  heat  of  blood  or 
in  fight,  it  was  impossible  to  convict.  The  juries  were  willing 
enough  to  convict  an  assassin,  or  one  who  murdered  by  taking 
a  dishonorable  advantage,  but  otherwise  if  there  was  a  conflict 
and  nothing  unfair  in  it.  This  same  spirit  prevailed  in  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee,  and  was  the  cause  of  the  great  success 
of  Clay,  Rowan,  and  Grunday,  in  defending  trials  for  murder. 

During  a  part  of  this  time,  all  elections  were  by  ballot. 
This  mode  of  voting  has  always  been  most  insisted  on  in  old 
settled  countries,  in  which  wealth  is  accumulated  in  the  hands 
of  the  few,  where  there  are  a  few  landlords,  and  the  great  body 
of  the  people  tenants,  where  some  are  capitalists  and  employers, 
and  others  laborers  and  dependents.  In  such  countries,  the 
ballot  is  supposed  to  preserve  the  independence  of  the  poor, 
and  make  them  irresponsible  to  their  wealthy  superiors.  But 
in  Illinois,  the  ballot  mode  of  voting  came  near  destroying  all 
manly  independence  and  frankness.  As  there  were  no  meas- 
ures to  be  contended  for  in  elections,  suffrage  was  bestowed  as 
a  matter  of  favor.  To  vote  against  a  candidate  was  equivalent 
to  an  insult,  by  telling  him  that  he  was  not  so  worthy  or  so 
well  qualified  as  his  opponent.  Therefore  many  of  the  voters 
never  let  it  be  known  how  they  voted  at  elections.  And  this 
was  the  origin  of  the  "  keep  dark"  system  of  former  times, 
which  is  thus  explained.  Each  candidate  for  office,  and  his 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  87 

more  immediate  friends,  kept  their  preference  for  other  candi- 
dates for  other  offices,  to  be  filled  at  the  same  election,  a  pro- 
found secret.  There  were  many  offices  to  be  filled  at  each 
election,  and  the  candidates  made  secret  combinations  amongst 
each  other  for  mutual  support,  a  few  days  before,  or  on  the  day 
of  election.  But  as  these  engagements  for  mutual  support  were 
secret,  and  could  only  be  carried  out  and  fulfilled  in  secret, 
many  were  the  frauds  and  breaches  of  faith  among  the  candi- 
dates and  their  friends.  That  candidate  who  was  the  most  in- 
triguing and  unprincipled,  in  common  cases,  was  the  most  likely 
to  be  elected.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years'  practice  under  the 
system,  it  was  difficult  to  find  any  aspirant  for  office  who  would 
risk  the  expression  of  an  opinion  about  any  person  or  thing. 
Each  one  sought  to  keep  himself  in  a  position  of  non-commit- 
talism,  in  which  he  would  be  at  liberty  to  make  the  best  bar- 
gains for  himself,  to  fulfil  such  engagements  as  would  result 
most  to  his  advantage,  and  to  cheat  such  other  candidates  as  he 
might  be  obliged  to  sacrifice.  This  "  keep  dark"  system  less 
or  more  pervaded  the  whole  office-seeking  tribe,  from  the  high- 
est to  the  lowest,  so  that  it  was  a  rare  thing  to  find  amongst 
the  humble  expectants  of  the  office  of  constable  any  degree  of 
frankness  of  conversation  or  independence  in  the  expression  of 
opinion.  No  doubt  this  result  was  as  much  produced  by  the 
want  of  the  influence  of  "  measures,"  the  want  of  party  lines,  as 
by  the  ballot  mode  of  voting  ;  but  the  two  together  made  an 
election,  so  far  as  the  candidates  and  their  immediate  friends 
were  concerned,  one  great  fraud,  in  which  honor,  faith,  and  truth 
were  freely  sacrificed,  and  politicians  were  debased  below  the 
standard  of  the  popular  idea  of  that  class  of  men.  The  ballot 
system  of  voting  was  repealed  in  1828-'9. 

In  the  primary  elections  by  the  people,  many  influences  were 
at  work  to  thwart  the  stablishment  of  a  wise  policy.  In  almost 
every  county  there  was  a  race  of  the  original  pioneers,  many 
of  whom  were  ignorant,  illiterate,  and  vicious.  These  were  apt 


88  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

to  be  such  as  wore  the  hunting-shirt,  the  buckskin  trowsers,  the 
raccoon  skin  cap,  and  leather  moccasins.  These  delighted  to 
wear  a  butcher  knife,  as  an  appendage  of  dress.  They  claimed 
unbounded  liberty,  and  were  naturally  hostile  to  any  action  of 
government  tending  to  their  improvement  and  civilization.  It 
is  true  that  this  class  of  people  formed  but  a  small  minority, 
but  the  better  informed  and  more  civilized  portion  were  so  di- 
vided by  faction,  and  split  up  by  contests  amongst  themselves 
for  power  and  office,  that  these  "  butcher  knife  boys,"  as  they 
were  called,  made  a  kind  of  balance  of  power  party.  These 
people,  from  their  propensity  to  fight  and  to  lead  uproarious 
lives,  were  also  called  "  the  half  horse  and  half  alligator  men." 
In  all  elections,  and  in  all  enactments  of  the  legislature,  great 
pains  were  taken  by  all  candidates  and  men  in  office  to  make 
their  course  and  measures  acceptable  to  these  "  butcher  knife 
boys  ;"  and  most  of  the  elections  in  early  times  were  made  un- 
der "  butcher  knife  influence ;"  not  that  these  instruments  were 
actually  wielded  to  force  an  election,  but  only  the  votes  of  those 
who  carried  them.  The  candidate  who  had  the  "  butcher  knife 
boys"  on  his  side  was  almost  certain  to  be  elected.  Since  the 
butcher  knife  has  been  disused  as  an  article  of  dress,  the  fash- 
ion has  been,  to  call  this  class  of  people  "  the  bare-footed  boys," 
"  the  flat-footed  boys,"  and  "  the  huge-pawed  boys,"  names  with 
which  they  seem  to  be  greatly  tickled  and  pleased,  and  their  in- 
fluence is  yet  considerable  in  all  elections. 

Personal  politics,  intrigue,  and  a  disregard  of  the  public  wel- 
fare, were  carried  from  the  primary  elections  into  the  legisla- 
ture. Almost  everything  there  was  done  from  personal  mo- 
tives. Special  legislation  for  the  benefit  of  friends  occupied 
members,  and  diverted  their  attention  from  such  measures  as 
were  for  the  general  benefit.  The  man  of  the  most  tact  and 
address,  who  could  make  the  most  friends  and  the  most  skilful 
combinations  of  individual  interests,  was  always  the  most  suc- 
cessful-in  accomplishing  his  purposes.  A  smooth,  sleek,  supple, 


HISTOKT  OF  ILLINOIS.  89 

friendly  manner,  which  by  gaming  favor  imposed  upon  credu- 
lity, made  a  politician  formidable.  Truly,  the  man  who  could 
approach  another  with  a  graceful  and  friendly  impudence,  and 
readily  conciliate  good-will,  was  potent  indeed.  The  genius 
and  humor  of  the  times  invented  or  imported  a  slang  language, 
very  expressive  of  the  achievements  of  these  political  heroes. 
Such  an  operator  in  politics  was  said  to  carry  "  a  gourd  of  pos- 
sum fat"  with  which  to  "  grease"  the  members.  It  is  not  known 
why  the  fat  of  the  opossum  was  selected  for  the  emblem  of 
this  kind  of  tact,  unless  because  it  was  the  most  fluid  and  slip- 
pery of  oils  then  known  in  the  country.  The  easy,  facile, 
credulous  fool  who  was  the  victim  of  artful  fascination,  was 
said  to  be  " greased  and  swallowed"  A  man  was  " greased" 
when  he  was  won  over  to  the  purposes  of  another  by  a  feigned 
show  of  friendship  and  condescension  ;  and  he  was  "  swallow- 
ed" when  he  was  made  to  act  to  suit  the  purposes  of  "  the  in- 
trigue," whatever  it  might  be.  Sometimes  the  act  of  lubrica- 
tion, by  which  a  man  was  fitted  to  be  "  swallowed,"  was  sup- 
posed to  be  performed  with  "  soft  soap."  It  was  no  uncommon 
thing  to  hear  that  such  a  one  "  had  a  great  deal  of  soft  soap 
about  him,"  and  was  a  "  great  hand  to  swallow  people."  Gov. 
Edwards  was  said  to  be  the  greatest  hand  to  swallow  people 
in  all  the  country  ;  and  when  he  was  last  a  candidate  for  gov- 
ernor, it  was  charged  on  him  that  he  had  not  only  swallowed 
a  great  many  of  his  former  enemies,  but  that  he  had  actually 
performed  the  grand  operation  of  swallowing  himself.  The 
simpleton  who  suffered  himself  to  be  made  a  mere  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  another  to  do  something  discreditable  or  un- 
popular, whereby  he  was  unable  to  be  elected  again,  was  said 
to  be  "  used  up,"  meaning  that  he  had  been  used  like  the  afore- 
said soft  soap,  or  other  household  article,  until  there  was  no 
more  of  him  left. 

During  this  period  of  twelve  years,  neither  the  people  nor 
their  public  servants  ever  dreamed  that  government  might  be 


90  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

made  the  instrument  to  accomplish  a  higher  destiny  for  the 
people.  There  seemed  to  be  no  aim  to  advance  the  civilization 
and  real  happiness  of  the  human  family.  Government  was 
supposed  to  be  necessaiy,  not  because  any  one  understood  or 
cared  for  its  true  object,  but  because  men  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  living  under  government.  The  people  looked  around,  and 
they  saw  that  everybody,  everywhere  else,  lived  under  some 
kind  of  government,  and  they  merely  submitted  to  it,  to  be  in 
the  fashion  with  other  States  and  nations ;  but  they  did  not 
want  government  to  touch  them  too  closely,  or  in  too  many 
places  :  they  were  determined  upon  the  preservation  and  enjoy- 
ment of  their  liberties.  So  that  government  made  no  encroach- 
ment upon  liberty,  they  inquired  no  further  into  its  true  aim 
and  object.  But  not  so  with  politicians  ;  they  had  a  definite 
destiny  to  accomplish,  not  for  the  people,  but  for  themselves. 
In  fact,  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  politicians  and  all,  had  a 
mere  selfish  destiny  in  view.  The  people  were,  most  of  them, 
pioneers  and  adventurers,  who  came  to  a  new  country  hoping 
to  get  a  living  with  more  ease  than  they  had  been  accustomed 
to,  or  to  better  their  condition  as  to  property.  Such  persons 
cared  but  little  for  matters  of  government,  except  when  stirred 
up  by  their  demagogues  ;  and  then  they  had  no  definite  object 
to  accomplish  except  to  punish  their  representatives  for  a  single 
act  or  vote,  which  was,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  a  good  one.  The 
politicians  took  advantage  of  this  lethargic  state  of  indifference 
of  the  people  to  advance  their  own  projects,  to  get  offices  and 
special  favors  from  the  legislature,  which  were  all  they  busied 
their  heads  about.  The  people  asked  nothing  and  claimed  no- 
thing but  to  be  let  alone,  and  the  politicians'  usually  went  to 
work  to  divide  out  the  benefits  and  advantages  of  government 
amongst  themselves ;  that  is,  amongst  the  active  men,  who 
sought  them  with  most  tact  and  diligence.  Offices  and  jobs 
were  created,  and  special  laws  of  all  kinds  for  individual,  not 
general  benefit,  were  passed,  and  these  good  things  were  divided 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  91 

out  by  bargains,  intrigues,  and  log-rolling  combinations,  and 
were  mostly  obtained  by  fraud,  deceit,  and  tact. 

It  is  related  of  Mr.  Samuel  Crozier,  a  former  Senator  from 
Randolph  county,  who  was  a  remarkable  example  of  the  most 
pure,  kind,  and  single-hearted  honesty,  that  after  serving  two 
sessions  in  the  Senate,  at  the  close  of  the  second,  and  after  he 
had  been  bought  and  sold  a  hundred  times  without  knowing  it, 
he  said  he  "  really  did  believe  that  some  intrigue  had  been 
going  on."  So  little  as  this  are  honest  men  aware  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  keeping  their  eyes  open,  in  sleepless  watchfulness,  or 
otherwise  the  few  will  monopolize  all  the  advantages  of  govern- 
ment, and  it  will  be  done  in  the  most  unfair  and  corrupt  man- 
ner. Thus  it  was  that  a  corrupt,  cunning,  and  busy  activity, 
blinded  the  eyes  of  the  people  and  their  representatives,  gov- 
erned in  the  name  of  the  people,  and  divided  out  amongst  those 
who  practiced  it,  nearly  all  the  benefits  and  advantages  of  gov- 
ernment. In  every  government  the  administration  of  it  will, 
in  the  long  run,  reflect  the  true  character  of  the  people ;  and 
this  is  one  thing  which  I  desire  to  illustrate  in  this  history. 
Many  persons  erroneously  believe  that  good  laws  will  make  a 
good  government ;  whereas,  if  the  genius  of  the  people  will 
permit  it,  the  best  laws  will  be  badly  administered,  and  will 
make  a  bad  government.  Reformation  is  not  to  begin  with 
the  laws  or  with  the  politicians,  but  with  the  people  themselves; 
and  when  they  are  reformed,  they  will  reform  everything  else. 
An  indifferent,  selfish,  and  ignorant  people,  will  be  made  known 
by  selfish  and  corrupt  politicians,  who  administer  their  govern- 
ment and  pervert  the  best  of  laws  to  the  worst  of  purposes. 
If  we  could  find  a  people  truly  wise,  incapable  of  being  misled, 
deceived,  or  humbugged,  we  should  find  statesmen  instead  of 
intriguing  politicians,  and  a  government  where  all  the  people 
enjoyed  equal  benefits  and  advantages  arising  from  it,  and 
where  none  would  be  permitted  by  fraud,  tact,  deceit  and  hum- 
bug, to  exceed  their  just  share.  If  this  rule  be  observed,  it  will 


92  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

be  the  true  test  by  which  to  judge  of  the  capacity  of  a  people 
for  a  good  or  bad  self-government.  Up  to  the  year  1840, 1  can 
say  with  perfect  truth,  that  considerations  of  mere  party,  men's 
condescensions,  agreeable  carriage,  and  professions  of  friendship, 
had  more  influence  with  the  great  body  of  the  people,  than  the 
most  important  public  services.  The  capacity  to  be  grateful 
for  public  services,  short  of  fighting  the  battles  of  the  country, 
existed  to  but  a  limited  extent.  But  some  could  be  grateful 
for  individual  benefits,  and  all  resented  individual  injury. 

About  the  year  1820,  and  perhaps  a  little  before,  one  or  two 
educated  ministers  of  the  gospel  removed  to  this  State.  The 
Eev.  John  M.  Peck,  of  Rock  Spring,  in  St.  Clair  county,  I  be- 
lieve, was  the  first  one.  By  the  year  1830,  quite  a  number  of 
them  had  come  in  from  other  States.  They  were  either  sent 
or  encouraged  to  come  by  the  missionary  societies  at  the  North 
and  East ;  and  being  animated  themselves  by  the  principles  of 
charity,  which  have  formed  the  religious  world  into  benevolent 
societies  of  various  sorts,  they  immediately  began  to  make  ac- 
tive eiforts  to  get  up  Bible  societies,  tract  societies,  missionary 
societies,  and  Sunday-schools  hi  Illinois.  For  a  long  time  they 
were  looked  upon  with  jealousy  and  bad  feeling  by  some  of 
the  old  race  of  uneducated  preachers.  These  last  had  been  the 
pioneers  of  the  gospel,  at  a  time  when  educated  ministers,  with 
salaries,  could  not  have  been  supported.  They  had  preached 
the  doctrine  of  a  free  salvation,  truly  and  literally  without 
money  and  without  price.  At  their  own  expense  had  they 
traversed  the  wilderness,  slept  in  the  open  air,  swam  rivers, 
suffered  cold  and  hunger,  travelled  on  horseback  and  on  foot, 
to  preach  the  gospel  and  establish  churches.  They  were  now 
about  to  be  superseded,  as  some  of  them  feared,  and  thrown 
aside,  for  nice,  well-dressed  young  men  from  college,  whom 
they  stigmatized  as  having  no  religion  in  their  hearts,  and  with 
knowing  nothing  about  it,  except  what  they  had  learned  at 
school.  A  daintier  taste  for  preaching  had  grown  up  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  93 

towns,  which  could  be  satisfied  only  by  a  more  polished  and 
intellectual  ministry.  The  new  preachers  settled  themselves 
mostly  in  the  villages  and  towns,  where  a  more  enlightened 
preaching  was  most  in  demand.  They  obtained  here  what  lit- 
tle salary  the  people  were  willing  and  able  to  pay ;  but  drew 
their  chief  support  from  the  contributions  of  charitable  societies 
in  the  old  States ;  and  from  the  towns  they  occasionally  made 
short  excursions  to  preach  in  the  country  places.  They  were 
charged  by  some  of  the  old  ministers  with  exercising  their  min- 
istry for  the  lucre  of  gain  ;  with  selling  the  gospel  to  those  who 
were  able  to  pay  for  it ;  with  desiring  the  salvation  of  the  gen- 
teel, well-dressed,  rich  people  who  lived  in  the  towns,  and  with 
being  utterly  unconcerned  about  the  salvation  of  the  rough  poor 
people  in  the  country,  who  were  unable  to  pay  them  a  salary. 
Nevertheless,  the  new  ministers  persevered  in  their  labors, 
without  taking  any  notice  of  these  persecutions,  and  rapidly 
succeeded  in  forming  congregations,  organizing  churches,  and 
building  places  of  worship.  And  now  at  this  day  the  truth  is 
apparent,  that  both  sorts  of  preachers  were  needed.  Compe- 
tition between  them  was  not" called  for  by  the  interest  of  either. 
The  educated  minister  of  the  town,  with  his  learning  and  better 
information,  and  his  more  chaste  and  subdued  style  of  elo- 
quence, would  have  been  but  an  indifferent  teacher  of  religion 
in  many  country  places ;  whilst  the  unlearned,  rough  and  bois- 
terous speaker  of  former  times,  was  as  little  suited  to  carry 
the  message  of  grace  to  "  ears  polite"  in  town. 

I  have  said  already  that  these  new  ministers  were  active  in 
establishing  all  those  kinds  of  societies,  which  have  been  made 
to  illustrate  the  spirit  of  benevolent  enterprise,  characteristic 
of  the  first  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Everywhere  they 
endeavored  to  promote  education  among  the  people,  and  in  a 
few  years  they  undertook  to  build  colleges  and  seminaries  of 
learning ;  and  to  obtain  acts  of  incorporation  for  them  from  the 
legislature.  But  such  was  the  prejudice  against  them,  on  the 


94  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

part  of  the  people,  that  they  did  not  succeed  in  getting  any 
charters  for  several  years,  and  when  they  did  get  them,  each 
charter  contained  a  prohibition  of  a  theological  department,  so 
determined  were  the  people  that  no  institution  should  be  en- 
couraged by  law,  for  educating  a  sectarian  ministry  at  home. 

A  most  remarkable  change  occurred  during  this  period  and  a 
little  before,  in  the  habits  of  dress  and  appearance  of  the  peo- 
ple. Before  the  year  1830,  a  man  dressed  in  The  costume  of 
the  territory,  which  was  a  raccoon-skin  cap,  linsey  hunting-shirt, 
buckskin  breeches  and  moccasins,  with  a  belt  around  the  waist, 
to  which  the  butcher-knife  and  tomahawk  on  the  side  and  back 
were  appended,  was  rarely  to  be  seen.  The  blue  linsey  hunting- 
shirt  with  red  or  white  fringe,  had  given  place  to  the  cloth  coat ; 
the  raccoon-skin  cap  with  the  tail  of  the  animal  dangling  down 
behind,  had  been  thrown  aside  for  hats  of  wool  or  fur.  Boots 
and  shoes  had  supplanted  the  deer-skin  moccasin,  and  the  leather 
breeches  strapped  tight  around  the  ancle,  had  disappeared  be- 
fore unmentionables  of  more  modern  material.  The  female 
sex  had  made  a  still  greater  progress  in  dress.  The  old  sort 
of  cotton  or  woollen  frocks,  spun,  wove  and  made  with  their 
own  fair  hands,  and  striped  and  cross-barred  with  blue  dye  and 
turkey  red,  had  given  place  to  gowns  of  silk  and  calico.  The 
feet,  before  in  a  state  of  nudity,  now  charmed  in  shoes  of  calf- 
skin or  slippers  of  kid ;  and  the  head  formerly  unbonnetted  but 
covered  with  a  cotton  handkerchief,  now  displayed  the  charms 
of  the  female  face,  under  many  forms  of  bonnets  of  straw,  silk 
or  leghorn.  The  young  ladies,  instead  of  walking  a  mile  or  two 
to  church  on  Sunday,  carrying  their  shoes  and  stockings  in  their 
hands  to  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  place  of  worship  as 
formerly,  now  came  forth  arrayed  complete  in  all  the  pride  of 
dress,  mounted  on  fine  horses,  and  attended  by  their  male  ad- 
mirers. 

With  the  pride  of  dress  came  ambition,  industry,  the  desire 
of  knowledge,  and  a  love  of  decency.  It  has  been  said  that 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  95 

civilization  is  a  forced  state  of  man,  to  which  he  is  stimulated 
by  a  desire  to  gratify  artificial  wants ;  and  it  may  be  truly  said 
that  the  young  people  of  that  day  were  powerfully  advanced  in 
the  way  of  civilization  by  the  new  wants  created  by  the  new 
spirit  by  which  they  were  animated.  But  the  old  people  re- 
gretted the  change.  They  would  have  been  better  contented  to 
live  in  their  old  log  cabins,  go  bare-footed,  and  eat  hog  and 
hominy.  From  such  were  heard  complaints  that  the  spinning- 
wheel  and  the  loom  were  neglected,  and  that  all  the  earnings 
of  the  young  people  were  expended  in  the  purchase  of  finery. 
The  old  world  political  economist  foretold  the  ruin  of  the  coun- 
try. He  was  certain  that  all  these  new  trappings  and  orna- 
ments should  be  disused  or  manufactured  at  home ;  for  if  pur- 
chased from  other  States,  all  the  money  which  came  in  must  be 
sent  out  of  the  country  as  fast  as  it  came. 

But  to  the  philosophical  observer  it  appeared  that  those  who 
adopted  the  new  habits  were  more  industrious  and  thrifty  than 
those  were  who  held  on  to  the  old  ones.  For  this  advancement 
in  civilization,  the  young  people  were  much  indebted  to  their 
practice  of  attending  church  on  Sundays.  Here  they  were  reg- 
ularly brought  together  at  stated  times ;  and  their  meeting,  if 
it  effected  no  better  end,  at  least  accustomed  them  to  admire 
and  wish  to  be  admired.  Each  one  wanted  to  make  as  good  a 
figure  as  he  could ;  and  to  that  end  came  to  meeting  well-dressed 
and  clean,  riding  on  a  fine  horse  elegantly  caparisoned.  This 
created  in  them  a  will  to  exert  more  than  the  old  measure  of 
industry ;  and  taught  them  new  notions  of  economy  and  ingenui- 
ty in  business,  to  get  the  means  of  gratifying  their  pride  in  this 
particular.  This  again  lead  to  settled  habits  of  enterprise,  econ- 
omy and  tact  in  business,  which  once  acquired  and  persevered 
in,  were  made  the  cause  of  a  thriftiness  unknown  to  their  fathers 
and  mothers. 

As  to  the  practice  of  attending  church  on  Sunday,  I  am  confi- 
dent that  it  produced  these  effects  I  have  observed  very  care- 


96  HISTORY  OP   ILLINOIS. 

fully,  in  the  course  of  thirty-five  years  spent  on  the  extreme 
frontiers ;  that  in  those  neighborhoods  where  the  people  habit- 
ually neglect  to  attend  public  worship  on  Sundays,  such  im- 
provements rarely,  if  ever,  take  place.  In  such  places  the  young 
people  feel  no  pride,  and  do  not  desire  improvement.  They 
scarcely -ever  throw  aside  their  every-day  rough  apparel  to 
dress  up  neat  and  clean  on  Sunday.  On  that  day  the  young 
men  are  seen  with  uncombed  heads,  unshorn  beards,  and  un- 
washed linen,  strolling  in  the  woods  hunting ;  or  on  the  race- 
course, or  at  a  grocery  contracting  habits  of  intoxication,  or 
lounging  sullenly  and  lazily  at  home.  The  young  women 
in  appearance,  dress,  manners  and  intelligence,  are  the  fit  com- 
panions for  their  brothers.  Sunday  to  them  brings  no  bright 
skies,  no  gladness,  no  lively  and  cheerful  thoughts,  and  no 
spirits  renovated  by  mixing  in  the  sober,  decent,  quiet,  but 
gay  assemblage  of  youth  and  beauty.  Their  week  of  labor  is 
not  cheered  by  anticipations  of  the  gay  and  bright  fete  with 
which  it  is  to  close.  Labor  through  the  week  to  them  is  a  drudge- 
ry ;  and  is  performed  with  surliness  and  grudging ;  and  their 
Sabbaths  are  spent  in  heedless  sleepy  stupidity.  The  young 
people  of  both  sexes  are  without  self-respect,  and  are  conscious 
of  not  deserving  the  respect  of  others.  They  feel  a  crushing 
and  withering  sense  of  meanness  and  inferiority  mingled  with 
an  envious  malignity  towards  all  excellence  in  others,  who  ex- 
hibit an  ambition  for  improvement.  Such  neighborhoods  are 
pretty  certain  to  breed  up  a  rough,  vicious,  ill-mannered  and 
ill-natured  race  of  men  and  women. 

Commerce  from  1818  to  1830,  made  but  a  small  progress. 
Steamboats  commenced  running  the  western  waters  in  1816, 
and  by  the  year  1830,  there  were  one  or  two  small  ones  run- 
ning on  the  Illinois  river  as  far  up  as  Peoria,  and  sometimes 
further.  The  old  keel-boat  navigation  had  been  disused ;  but 
as  yet  there  was  so  little  trade  as  not  to  call  for  many  steam- 
boats to  supply  their  place.  The  merchants  of  the  villages,  few 


f 


HISTOBY  OP  ILLINOIS.  97 

in  number  at  first,  were  mere  retailers  of  dry-goods  and  grocer- 
ies ;  they  purchased  and  shipped  abroad  none  of  the  produc- 
tions of  the  country,  except  a  few  skins,  hides  and  furs,  and  a 
little  tallow  and  beeswax.  They  were  sustained  in  this  kind  of 
business  by  the  influx  of  immigrants,  whose  money  being  paid 
out  in  the  country  for  grain,  stock  and  labor,  furnished  the 
means  of  trade.  The  merchant  himself  rarely  attempted  a 
barter  business,  and  never  paid  cash  for  anything  but  his 
goods.  There  was  no  class  of  men  who  devoted  themselves  to 
the  business  of  buying  and  selling,  and  of  making  the  exchanges 
of  the  productions  at  home,  for  those  of  other  States  and  coun- 
tries. The  great  majority,  in  fact  nearly  all  the  merchants,  were 
mere  blood-suckers,  men  who  with  a  very  little  capital,  a  small 
stock  of  goods,  and  with  ideas  of  business  not  broader  than 
their  ribbands,  nor  deeper  than  their  colors,  sold  for  money 
down,  or  on  a  credit  for  cash,  which  when  received  they  sent 
out  of  the  country.  Since  their  time  a  race  of  traders  and  mer- 
chants has  sprung  up,  who  use  the  money  they  receive  for 
goods  in  purchasing  the  wheat,  corn,  beef,  and  pork  of  the  farm- 
ers ;  and  ship  these  articles  to  the  eastern  cities.  Mather  Lamb 
&  Co.,  late  of  Chester,  in  Kandolph  county,  but  now  of  Spring- 
field, were  the  first  to  engage  in  this  business ;  and  they  were 
lead  to  it  by  the  refusal  of  the  United  States  Bank  at  St.  Louis 
to  grant  them  the  usual  facilities  of  trade.  As  they  could  get 
no  accommodation  from  the  bank,  they  fell  upon  this  course  to 
avoid  going  to  St.  Louis  to  purchase  eastern  enchange. 

The  money  which  they  received  being  again  paid  out,  re- 
mained in  the  country,  and  the  produce  went  forward  in  its 
place,  to  pay  for  stocks  of  goods.  The  traders  in  this  way 
made  a  profit  on  their  goods  which  they  brought  into  the  State, 
and  another  profit  on  the  produce  which  they  sent  out  of  it. 

But,  as  yet,  the  merchants  generally  had  neither  the  capital 
nor  the  talents  for  such  a  business  ;  and  it  was  not  until  a  more 
recent  period,  upon  the  going  down  of  the  United  States  Bank, 

5 


98  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  consequent  withdrawal  of  facilities  for  exchange  in  money, 
and  the  high  rates  of  exchange  which  came  in  with  local  banks 
of  doubtful  credit,  that  they  have  been  very  extensively  forced 
into  it.  When  they  could  no  longer  get  either  money  for  re- 
mittance to  their  eastern  creditors,  or  bills  of  exchange,  except 
at  ruinous  rates  of  premium,  they  at  once  saw  the  advantage  of 
laying  out  the  local  currency  received  for  their  goods  in  pur- 
chasing the  staples  of  the  country  and  forwarding  them  in  the 
place  of  cash.  In  very  early  times  there  were  many  things  to 
discourage  regular  commerce.  A  want  of  capital,  a  want  of 
capacity  for  the  business,  the  want  of  a  great  surplus  of  pro- 
ductions, the  continual  demand  for  them  created  by  immigrants, 
and  facility  of  carrying  on  a  small  commerce  with  the  money 
supplied  by  emigration  alone,  all  stood  in  the  way  of  regular 
trade.  New  Orleans,  at  that  time,  was  our  principal  market 
out  of  the  State.  It  was  then  but  a  small  city,  and  shipped 
but  a  trifle  of  the  staple  articles  of  Illinois  to  foreign  countries. 
Such  shipments  as  were  made  to  it  were  intended  for  the  sup- 
ply of  the  local  market ;  and  here  the  Illinoisians  had  to  com- 
pete with  Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri. 
Any  temporary  scarcity  in  this  market  was  soon  supplied,  and 
the  most  of  the  time  it  was  completely  glutted. 

For  want  of  merchants  or  others  who  were  to  make  a  busi- 
ness of  carrying  our  staples  to  market,  our  farmers  undertook 
to  be  their  own  merchants  and  traders.  This  practice  prevailed 
extensively  in  the  western  country.  A  farmer  would  produce 
or  get  together  a  quantity  of  corn,  flour,  bacon,  and  such  arti- 
cles. He  would  build  a  flat-bottomed  boat  on  the  shore  of  some 
river  or  large  creek,  load  his  wares  into  it,  and,  awaiting  the 
rise  of  water,  with  a  few  of  his  negroes  to  assist  him,  would 
float  down  to  New  Orleans.  The  voyage  was  long,  tedious, 
and  expensive.  When  he  arrived  there,  he  found  himself  in  a 
strange  city,  filled  with  sharpers  ready  to  take  advantage  of 
his  necessities.  Everybody  combined  against  him  to  profit  by 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  99 

">- 

his  ignorance  of  business,  want  of  friends  or  commercial  con- 
nexions ;  and  nine  times  out  of  ten  he  returned  a  broken  mer- 
chant. His  journey  home  was  performed  on  foot,  through 
three  or  four  nations  of  Indians  inhabiting  the  western  parts  of 
Mississippi,  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky.  He  returned  to  a  deso- 
late farm,  which  had  been  neglected  whilst  he  was  gone.  One 
crop  was  lost  by  absence,  and  another  by  taking  it  to  market. 
This  kind  of  business  was  persevered  in  astonishingly  for  sev- 
eral years,  to  the  great  injury  and  utter  ruin  of  a  great  many 
people. 

In  later  times,  after  the  steamboat  had  taken  the  place  of 
other  species  of  navigation,  after  regular  dealers  and  business 
men  had  made  their  appearance  on  the  theatre  of  trade,  and 
after  New  Orleans  had  become  a  great  city,  and  a  great  mart 
of  foreign  commerce,  there  were  still  other  difficulties  to  be  en- 
countered of  a  very  formidable  character.  These  were,  the 
disposition  of  the  people  not  to  sell  their  produce  for  the  mar- 
ket price,  and  to  raise  no  surplus  whatever  unless  the  prices 
were  high.  If  the  trader  offered  one  price,  the  farmer  would 
ask  a  little  more,  and  more  than  the  trader  could  afford  to 
give  and  make  a  reasonable  profit.  Let  the  price  be  what  it 
might,  many  would  hold  up  their  commodity  a  whole  year,  ex- 
pecting a  rise  in  the  market ;  and  if  the  price  was  low,  they 
would  cease  producing.  If  a  farmer  had  a  surplus  of  corn, 
wheat,  hogs,  or  cattle,  in  the  fall  season,  and  could  not  sell 
them  for  the  full  price  he  demanded,  he  would  keep  them  until 
next  year,  expecting  to  get  more  for  them  then.  In  the  mean- 
time, he  would  lose  more  by  the  natural  loss  and  waste  of  his 
property,  than  he  could  possibly  gain  by  increased  prices  the 
next  season.  I  have  known  whole  stacks  of  wheat  and  whole 
fields  of  corn  to  rot,  or  to  be  dribbled  out  and  wasted  to  no  pur- 
pose ;  and  whole  droves  of  hogs  to  run  wild  in  the  woods  so 
as  never  to  be  reclaimed,  whilst  the  owner  was  saving  them 
for  a  higner  price.  He  suffered,  also,  by  laying  out  of  the 


100  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

present  use  of  the  money,  and  by  being  compelled  to  purchase 
many  necessary  articles  on  a  credit,  at  a  higher  price  than  they 
could  be  bought  for  with  cash.  By  holding  back  for  a  higher 
price,  he  suffered  loss  by  the  natural  waste  of  his  property,  by 
laying  out  of  the  use  of  his  money,  by  losing  the  many  good 
bargains  he  could  have  made  with  it  in  the  meantime,  and  by 
being  compelled  to  purchase  dear  on  a  credit,  and  pay  a  high 
interest  on  the  debt  if  not  paid  when  due.  In  all  these  ways  he 
lost  more  than  he  would  by  borrowing  money  on  compound 
interest.  And  yet  he  could  never  be  persuaded  that  it  was 
for  his  advantage  to  sell  as  soon  as  his  article  became  market- 
able, and  at  the  market  price. 

This  practice  of  holding  up  property  from  the  market  unless 
the  owner  can  receive  more  than  the  market  price,  still  prevails 
extensively  in  the  southern  and  some  of  the  eastern  parts  of 
the  State,  and  fully  accounts  for  much  of  the  difference  in  the 
degree  of  prosperity  which  is  found  there,  and  in  the  middle 
and  northern  part  of  the  State. 

The  New  England  population  make  it  a  rule  to  sell  all  their 
marketable  property  as  soon  as  it  becomes  fit  for  market,  and 
at  the  market  price.  By  this  means  the  farmer  avoids  the  loss 
and  expense  of  keeping  it  on  hand.  He  has  the  present  use 
of  its  value  in  money,  and  makes  many  good  bargains  and 
speculations  which  could  not  be  made  without  a  little  ready 
money.  He  avoids  buying  on  credit,  or  rather,  paying  interest 
on  his  debts  after  they  become  due.  Money  is  more  plenty, 
and  the  whole  people  are  enabled  to  be  more  punctual  in  the 
payment  of  their  debts.  The  local  merchant  is  enabled  to  do 
an  active  business.  He  is  always  sure  that  he  can  purchase 
to  the  extent  of  his  capital,  and  at  rates  which  will  put  it  in  his 
power  to  sell  at  a  profit.  In  this  manner  the  farmer  prospers, 
the  local  merchant  prospers,  the  miller  and  manufacturer  pros- 
per. Towns  grow  up  rapidly.  Employment  is  furnished  for 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  101 

mechanics  and  laborers.  By  such  means  our  northern  people 
are  enabled  to  build  up  a  country  village  in  three  or  four 
years  as  large  as  a  country  seat  in  the  south  of  twenty  years' 
standing.* 

*  The  people  in  many  parts  of  the  State  have  another  practice  which 
they  must  abandon  before  money  can  be  plenty  among  them.  They 
make  their  contracts  to  be  paid  in  "  trade  at  trade  rates."  This  prac- 
tice, by  dispensing  with  the  use  of  money  in  business,  discourages  its 
presence :  whereas,  the  opposite  course,  by  creating  a  necessity  for 
money,  is  the  means  of  forcing  it  into  the  country.  And  accordingly, 
in  all  those  countries  where  debts  are  punctually  paid  in  cash,  bar- 
gains all  made  to  be  paid  in  cash,  laborers  all  paid  in  cash,  at  short 
intervals,  say  at  the  end  of  the  week,  money  is  always  the  most  plenty ; 
and  in  those  countries  where  the  contrary  course  is  pursued,  it  is  the 
most  scarce.  It  is  useless  to  say  that  plenty  of  money  enables  one 
country  to  do  a  cash  business,  and  that  scarcity  prevents  it  in  the 
other.  Money  will  go  where  it  is  most  prized,  used,  and  needed  in 
business,  and  will  refuse  to  go  where  its  use  is  dispensed  with,  or  to 
be  used  only  to  be  hoarded.  If  any  people  want  to  be  prosperous  and 
have  plenty  of  money,  let  them  remember  this. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Extent  of  settlements  in  1830 — Election  for  Governor  that  year — Judge  John  Reynolds, 
William  Kinney ;  further  development  of  party — Description  of  an  election  of  contest 
— Reynolds  elected  by  Jackson  and  anti-Jackson  men — Legislature  of  1831  bound 
to  redeem  the  notes  of  the  old  State  Bank— Horror  of  increasing  taxes— Fears  of  the 
legislature — The  Wiggins'  loan — All  the  members  broke  down — The  little  bull  law — 
Penitentiary  punishments— Curious  contest  for  State  Treasurer — Indian  disturbances 
— Treaties  with  the  Indians — Black  Hawk's  account  of  them — His  character — He 
invades  the  Rock  river  country — Call  for  volunteers — March  to  Rock  Island — Escape 
of  the  Indians — New  treaty  with  them — Next  year  Black  Hawk  returns — Volunteers 
again  called  for — March  of  Governor  Reynolds  and  Gen.  Whiteside — Burning  of 
Prophet's  town — Arrival  at  Dixon — Majors  Stillman  and  Bailey — Route  at  Stillman's 
run — Account  of  it  by  a  volunteer  Colonel — Council  of  war — Gen.  Whiteside  marches 
in  pursuit  of  the  Indians — Massacre  of  Indian  Creek,  two  young  ladies  captured  and 
restored — Gen.  Whiteside  buries  tbe  dead  and  marches  back  to  Dixon — Meets  Gen. 
Atkinson — Dissatisfaction  of  the  men — Marches  to  Ottawa — Army  discharged — New 
call  for  volunteers — Volunteer  regiment  left  as  a  guard  of  the  frontiers — Col.  Jacob 
Fry — Captain  Snyder— Battle  with  the  Indians,  bravery  of  Gen.  Whiteside — Gen. 
Semple  and  Capt.  Snyder — Indian  murders — St.  Vrain  and  others — Siege  of  Apple- 
river  Fort — Col.  Strode — Galena— Martial  law  there — Gen.  Dodge's  successful  attack 
— Capt.  Stephenson — Martial  spirit  of  the  Indians— Major  Dement,  defence  of  Kel- 
logg's  Grove — Gen.  Posey's  march — Gen.  Alexander — Gen. Atkinson — Gen.  Henry — 
March  up  Rock  river— Turtle  village — Burnt  village — Lake  Keshkonong— Search 
for  the  Indians — Two  regular  soldiers  flred  on — Expedition  to  the  "trembling 
lands"— Army  dispersed  in  search  of  provisions. 

THE  population  of  the  State  had  increased  by  the  year  1830, 
to  157,447;  it  had  spread  north  from  Alton  as  far  as  Peoria, 
principally  on  the  rivers  and  creeks  ;  and  in  such  places  there 
were  settlers  sparsely  scattered  along  the  margin  of  the  Missis- 
sippi river  to  Galena,  sometimes  at  the  distance  of  an  hundred 
miles  apart ;  also  on  the  Illinois  to  Chicago,  with  long  intervals 
of  wilderness ;  and  a  few  sparse  settlements  were  scattered 
about  all  over  the  southern  part  of  the  military  tract.  The 
country  on  the  Sangamon  river  and  its  tributaries  had  been 
settled,  and  also  the  interior  of  the  south ;  leaving  a  large  wil- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  103 

derness  tract  yet  to  be  peopled  between  Galena  and  Chicago ; 
the  whole  extent  of  the  Kock  river  and  Fox  river  countries, 
and  nearly  all  the  lands  in  the  counties  of  Hancock,  M'Donough, 
Fulton,  Peoria,  Stark,  Warren,  Henderson,  Knox,  Mercer, 
Henry,  Bureau,  Livingston,  Champaign,  Piatt,  and  Iroquois, 
comprising  one-third  of  the  territory  of  the  State.  As  yet  but 
few  settlements  had  been  made  anywhere  in  the  open  wide 
prairies,  but  were  confined  to  the  margins  of  the  timber  in  the 
vicinity  of  rivers  and  streams  of  water. 

A  new  election  for  governor  was  to  be  held  in  August,  1830. 
The  candidates  for  the  office  were  John  Reynolds,  late  a  judge 
of  the  supreme  court,  and  William  Kinney,  then  lieutenant- 
governor,  both  of  them  of  the  dominant  party.  All  general 
elections  since  1826,  had  resulted  in  lavor  of  the  friends  of  Gen. 
Jackson.  The  legislature  always  contained  a  large  majority  of 
Jackson  men ;  but  parties  were  not  as  yet  thoroughly  drilled 
and  consolidated.  On  the  one  side,  there  was  a  kind  of  idol- 
atrous devotion  to  General  Jackson ;  on  the  other,  a  mere  per- 
sonal opposition  and  dislike,  with  but  little  reference  on  either 
side  to  the  principles  of  government.  When  the  great  popular 
movement  commenced,  which  resulted  in  the  elevation  of  Gen- 
eral Jackson  to  power,  many  politicians  ranged  themselves 
under  his  banner  as  that  of  a  popular  and  fortunate  leader, 
upon  whose  shoulders  they  themselves  could  climb  into  power 
and  office.  Such  persons  were  influenced  in  but  a  small  degree 
by  the  spite  and  malice  of  party ;  so  that  if  they  could  provide 
for  themselves,  they  were  disposed  to  be  kind  and  tolerant  to 
their  opponents.  With  many  such  it  was  the  height  of  ambi- 
tion to  get  to  the  legislature ;  and  when  they  got  there,  the 
sleek,  smooth,  pleasant  men  of  tact  and  address  in  the  minority, 
seduced  them  from  the  majority ;  and  so  the  legislative  acts  of 
public  officers  were  as  likely  to  result  in  favor  of  one  party  as 
the  other.  This  was  a  matter  of  wonder  and  astonishment  to 
the  new  immigrants  from  the  older  States,  who  came  blazing  hot 


104  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

like  brands  plucked  from  the  burning,  heated  with  the  fiery  con- 
tests, in  the  States  from  whence  they  came,  between  the  old 
organized  parties  of  federalists  and  republicans. 

But  party  lines  were  so  far  drawn  that  no  anti-Jackson  man 
could  be  elected  to  Congress,  to  the  United  States  Senate,  or 
to  be  governor  of  the  State.  For  this  reason  the  anti-Jackson 
party  proposed  no  candidate  for  governor  at  this  election ;  some 
of  them  preferred  one  candidate  of  the  dominant  party,  and 
some  the  other ;  but  the  great  body  of  the  anti-Jackson  party 
supported  Governor  Eeynolds.  Mr.  Kinney  was  one  of  the  old 
sort  of  Baptist  preachers ;  his  morality  was  not  of  that  pinched 
up  kind,  which  prevented  him  from  using  all  the  common  arts 
of  a  candidate  for  office.  It  was  said  that  he  went  forth  elec- 
tioneering with  a  Bible  in  one  pocket  and  a  bottle  of  whiskey 
in  the  other  ;  and  thus  armed  with  "  the  sword  of  the  Lord  and 
the  spirit,"  he  could  preach  to  one  set  of  men  and  drink  with 
another,  and  thus  make  himself  agreeable  to  all.  In  those  days 
the  people  drank  vast  quantities  of  whiskey  and  other  liquors ; 
and  the  dispensation  of  liquors,  or  "  treating,"  as  it  was  called, 
by  candidates  for  office,  was  an  indispensable  element  of  success 
at  elections.  In  many  counties,  the  candidates  would  hire  all 
the  groceries  at  the  country  seats  and  other  considerable  vil- 
lages, where  the  people  could  get  liquor  without  cost  for  several 
weeks  before  the  election.  In  such  places,  during  the  pending 
of  elections,  the  voters  in  all  the  neighboring  country  turned 
out  on  every  Saturday,  to  visit  the  country  seat,  to  see  the  can- 
didates, and  hear  the  news.  They  came  by  dozens  from  all 
parts,  and  on  every  road,  riding  on  their  ponies,  which  they 
hitched  up  or  tied  to  the  fences,  trees,  and  bushes  in  the  village. 
The  candidates  came  also,  and  addressed  the  people  from  wag- 
ons, benches,  old  logs,  or  stumps  newly  cut,  from  whence  comes 
the  phrase  "  stump  speeches,"  used  to  signify  a  popular  harangue 
to  the  people,  by  a  candidate  for  office.  The  stump  speeches 
being  over,  then  commenced  the  drinking  of  liquor,  and  long 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  105 

before  night  a  large  portion  of  the  voters  would  be  drunk  and 
staggering  about  town,  cursing,  swearing,  hallooing,  yelling, 
huzzaing  for  their  favorite  candidates,  throwing  their  arms  up 
and  around,  threatening  to  fight,  and  fighting.  About  the  time 
of  this  election,  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  such  persons  in  the 
town  of  Springfield,  now  the  polished  seat  of  government  of  the 
State.  Towards  evening  they  would  mount  their  ponies,  go 
reeling  from  side  to  side,  galloping  through  town,  and  throwing 
up  their  caps  and  hats,  screeching  like  so  many  infernal  spirits 
broke  loose  from  their  nether  prison,  and  thus  they  departed 
for  their  homes. 

This  had  been  the  case  for  many  years  in  many  counties  at 
all  the  circuit  courts,  elections,  and  public  gatherings ;  but  thank 
God,  such  scenes  are  no  more  to  be  witnessed  in  Illinois. 

Mr.  Kinney  had  the  name  of  being  a  whole  hog,  thorough- 
going original  Jackson  man.  Politicians  in  those  days  of  the 
Jackson  party  were  divided  into  whole  hog  men,  and  nominal 
Jackson  men.  Mr.  Kinney  belonged  to  the  first  division ;  he 
possessed  a  vigorous  understanding,  an  original  genius,  and  was 
a  warm  and  true  friend,  and  a  bitter  enemy.  He  was  a  witty, 
merry  and  jovial  man,  who  studied  fun  and  was  highly  esteem- 
ed by  his  neighbors  and  acquaintances.  The  anti-Jackson  men 
hated  him  more  than  they  did  Reynolds,  and  hence  their  prefer- 
ence for  the  latter.  They  did  not  so  much  vote^br  Reynolds 
as  against  Kinney.  They  were  like  the  man  who  said  that  he 
had  not  voted  for  any  candidate  for  the  last  ten  years,  never- 
theless he  had  always  voted  at  every  election ;  but  instead  of 
voting  for  any  one  person,  he  had  always  voted  against  some 
rascal. 

Judge  Reynolds  was  made  of  more  good-natured,  easy  and 
pliable  materials.  He  had  received  a  classical  education,  and 
was  a  man  of  good  talents  in  his  own  peculiar  way  ;  but  no  one 
would  suppose  from  hearing  his  conversation  and  public  ad- 
dresses, that  he  had  ever  learned  more  than  to  read  and  write 

5* 


106  HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS. 

and  cypher  to  the  rule  of  three ;  such  acquisitions  being  sup- 
posed to  constitute  a  very  learned  man  in  the  times  of  his  early 
life.  He  had  been  a  farmer,  a  lawyer,  and  a  soldier,  a  judge, 
and  a  member  of  the  legislature.  He  had  passed  his  life  on 
the  frontiers  among  a  frontier  people ;  he  had  learned  all  the 
bye-words,  catch-words,  old  sayings  and  figures  of  speech  in- 
vented by  vulgar  ingenuity,  and  common  among  a  backwoods 
people  ;  to  these  he  had  added  a  copious  supply  of  his  own,  and 
had  diligently  compounded  them  all  into  a  language  peculiar  to 
himself,  which  he  used  on  all  occasions,  both  public  and  private. 
He  was  a  man  of  remarkably  good  sense  and  shrewdness  for 
the  sphere  in  which  he  chose  to  move,  and  possessed  a  fertile 
imagination,  a  ready  eloquence,  and  a  continual  mirthfulness  and 
pleasantry  when  mingling  with  the  people.  He  had  a  kind 
heart,  and  was  always  ready  to  do  a  favor  and  never  harbored 
resentment  against  any  human  being.  Such  a  man  was  certain 
to  be  successful  against  the  Baptist  preacher,  and  sure  enough 
he  was  elected  by  a  most  triumphant  majority. 

A  new  legislature  was  elected  at  the  same  time ;  it  contained 
a  majority  of  Jackson  men ;  a  majority  of  whom  again  had 
been  opposed  to  Eeyriolds'  election ;  but  the  union  of  Reynolds' 
Jackson  friends  with  the  anti-Jackson  members,  constituted  a 
small  majority  of  the  legislature.  It  is  not  remembered  that 
the  new  governor  put  forth  or  advocated  any  measure  of  pub- 
lic policy,  as  a  measure  of  his  administration.  But  during  this 
first  session  the  legislature  had  to  make  provision  for  the  re- 
demption of  the  notes  of  the  old  State  Bank,  which  became  due 
in  the  course  of  the  next  summer.  No  former  legislature  had 
dared  to  risk  their  popularity  by  providing  for  the  redemption 
of  these  notes,  by  taxation  or  otherwise. 

The  subject  had  been  put  off  from  time  to  time,  each  legisla- 
ture willing  to  shift  the  odious  task  upon  their  successors  in  of- 
fice, until  further  delay  would  amount  to  a  breach  of  the  public 
faith.  Something  must  now  be  done,  and  that  immediately. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  107 

The  popularity-loving  members  of  this  legislature  came  up  to 
the  work  with  fear  and  trembling.  They  feared  to  be  denounced 
as  a  band  of  perjured  and  faithless  men  if  they  neglected  their 
duty,  and  they  dreaded  to  meet  the  deep  roar  of  indignant  dis- 
approbation from  their  angry  constituents,  by  performing  it. 
But  a  majority  in  each  house  acted  like  men.  They  passed  a 
law  authorizing  the  celebrated  Wiggins'  loan  of  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  The  money  was  obtained  and  the  notes  of 
the  bank  were  redeemed,  the  honor  of  the  State  was  saved,  but 
the  legislature  was  damned  for  all  time  to  come.  The  mem- 
bers who  voted  for  the  law  were  struck  with  consternation  and 
fear  at  the  first  sign  of  the  public  indignation.  Instead  of  bold- 
ly defending  their  act  and  denouncing  the  unprincipled  dema- 
gogues who  were  inflaming  the  minds  of  the  people,  these  mem- 
bers, when  they  returned  to  their  constituents,  went  meanly 
sneaking  about  like  guilty  things,  making  the  most  humble  ex- 
cuses and  apologies.  A  bolder  course  by  enlightening  the  pub- 
lic mind  might  have  preserved  the  standing  of  the  legislature, 
and  wrought  a  wholesome  revolution  in  public  opinion,  then 
much  needed. 

But  as  it  was.  the  destruction  of  great  men  was  noticeable  for 
a  great  number  of  years.  The  Wiggins'  loan  was  long  a  bye- 
word  in  the  mouths  of  the  people.  Many  affected  to  believe 
that  Wiggins  had  purchased  the  whole  State,  that  the  inhabit- 
ants, for  generations  to  come,  had  been  made  over  to  him  like 
cattle ;  and  but  few  found  favor  in  their  sight  who  had  anything 
to  do  with  the  loan.  There  has  never  been  anything  like  this 
destruction  of  great  men  in  Illinois,  except  on  a  subsequent  oc- 
casion, when  the  legislature  passed  a  law  for  the  improvement 
of  the  breed  of  cattle,  by  which  small  bulls  were  prohibited, 
under  severe  penalties,  from  running  at  large.  On  this  last  oc- 
casion no  one  dreamed  that  a  hurricane  .of  popular  indignation 
was  about  to  be  raised,  but  so  it  was  :  the  people  took  sides 
with  the  little  bulls.  The  law  was  denounced  as  being  aristo- 


108  HJSTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

cratic,  and  intended  to  favor  the  rich,  who,  by  their  money,  had 
become  possessed  of  large  bulls,  and  were  to  make  a  profit  by 
the  destruction  of  the  small  ones  ;  and  besides  this,  there  was 
a  generous  feeling  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  in  favor  of  an 
equality  of  privileges  even  among  bulls.  These  two  laws  over- 
threw many  a  politician,  never  to  recover  again  or  be  seen  in 
the  public  councils.  The  "  Wiggins'  loan"  and  "  the  little  bull 
law"  will  be  long  remembered  by  numerous  aspirants  for  of- 
fice, who  were  sunk  by  them  so  low  in  the  public  favor,  that 
the  "  hand  of  resurrection  has  never  reached  them." 

At  this  session  of  1830-'!,  the  criminal  code  was  first  adapted 
to  penitentiary  punishment,  and  ever  after  the  old  system  of 
whipping  and  pillory  for  the  punishment  of  crimes  has  been 
disused.  In  the  course  of  fifteen  years'  experience  under  the 
new  system,  I  am  compelled  to  say  that  crime  has  increased  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  increase  of  inhabitants. 

At  this  session  there  was  a  curious  contest  in  the  election 
of  a  State  Treasurer.  Judge  Hall  was  the  candidate  of  the 
Kinney  men ;  John  Dement  was  the  candidate  of  Governor 
Reynolds.  Hall  was  a  violent  anti-Jackson  man,  but  had  been 
editor  of  a  newspaper  in  favor  of  Kinney.  Dement  was  an 
original  Jackson  man,  but  had  warmly  supported  Governor 
Reynolds.  The  Kinney  men  were  the  ultraists,  the  proscrip- 
tionists,  and  the  whole-hog-men  of  the  party,  but  yet  they 
fought  manfully  for  Hall,  whilst  the  anti-Jackson  members 
fought  as  manfully  for  Dement.  On  this  question  the  two  par- 
ties exchanged  positions  and  candidates. 

Not  long  Sfter  the  adjournment  of  this  session,  news  came 
of  disturbances  by  the  Indians,  in  the  Rock  river  country.  It 
appears  that  a  treaty  had  been  made  by  Gen.  Harrison  at  St. 
Louis,  in  November,  1804,  with  the  chiefs  of  the  Sac  and  Fox 
nations  of  Indians,  by  which  those  Indians  had  ceded  to  the 
United  States  all  their  land  on  Rock  river,  and  much  more 
elsewhere.  This  treaty  was  confirmed  by  a  part  of  the  tribe 


HISTOEY  OF   ILLINOIS.  109 

in  a  treaty  with  Gov.  Edwards  and  Auguste  Chouteau,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1815,  and  by  another  part  in  a  treaty  with  the  same 
commissioners  in  May,  1816.  The  United  States  had  caused 
some  of  these  lands,  situate  at  the  mouth  of  Rock  river,  to  be 
surveyed  and  sold.  These  lands  included  the  great  town  of 
the  nation,  near  the  mouth  of  the  river.  The  purchasers  from 
the  government  moved  on  to  their  lands,  built  houses,  made 
fences  and  fields,  and  thus  took  possession  of  the  ancient  me- 
tropolis of  the  Indian  nation.  This  metropolis  consisted  of 
about  two  or  three  hundred  lodges  made  of  small  poles  set  up- 
right in  the  ground,  upon  which  other  poles  were  tied  trans- 
versely, with  bark  at  the  top,  so  as  to  hold  a  covering  of  bark 
peeled  from  the  neighboring  trees,  and  secured  with  other  strips 
of  bark,  with  which  they  were  sewed  to  the  transverse  poles. 
The  sides  of  the  lodges  were  secured  in  the  same  manner.  The 
principal  part  of  these  Indians  had  long  since  moved  from  their 
town  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi. 

But  there  was  one  old  chief  of  the  Sacs,  called  Mucata  Mu- 
hicatah,  or  Black  Hawk,  who  always  denied  the  validity  of 
these  treaties.  Black  Hawk  was  now  an  old  man.  He  had 
been  a  warrior  from  his  youth.  He  had  led  many  a  war  party 
on  the  trail  of  an  enemy,  and  had  never  been  defeated.  He 
had  been  in  the  service  of  England  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  had 
been  aid-de-camp  to  the  great  Tecumseh.  He  was  distinguished 
for  courage  and  for  clemency  to  the  vanquished.  He  was  an 
Indian  patriot,  a  kind  husband  and  father,  and  was  noted  for  his 
integrity  in  all  his  dealings  with  his  tribe  and  with  the  Indian 
traders.  He  was  firmly  attached  to  the  British,  and  cordially 
hated  the  Americans.  At  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812  he  had 
never  joined  in  making  peace  with  the  United  States,  but  he 
and  his  band  still  kept  up  their  connection  with  Canada,  and 
were  ever  ready  for  a  war  with  our  people.  He  was  in  his 
personal  deportment  grave  and  melancholy,  with  a  disposition 
to  cherish  and  brood  over  the  wrongs  he  supposed  he  had  re- 


110  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

ceived  from  the  Americans.  He  was  thirsting  for  revenge 
upon  his  enemies,  and  at  the  same  time  his  piety  constrained 
him  to  devote  a  day  in  the  year  to  visit  the  grave  of  a  favorite 
daughter  buried  on  the  Mississippi  river,  not  far  from  Oquaka. 
Here  he  came  on  his  yearly  visit,  and  spent  a  day  by  the  grave, 
lamenting  and  bewailing  the  death  of  one  who  had  been  the 
pride  of  his  family  and  of  his  Indian  home.  With  these  feel- 
ings was  mingled  the  certain  and  melancholy  prospect  of  the 
extinction  of  his  tribe,  and  the  transfer  of  his  country,  with 
its  many  silvery  rivers,  rolling  and  green  prairies,  and  dark 
forests,  the  haunts  of  his  youth,  to  the  possession  of  a  hated 
enemy  ;  whilst  he  and  his  people  were  to  be  driven,  as  he  sup- 
posed, into  a  strange  country,  far  from  the  graves  of  his  fa- 
thers and  his  children. 

Black  Hawk's  own  account  of  the  treaty  of  1804  is  as  fol- 
lows. He  says  that  some  Indians  of  the  tribe  were  arrested 
and  imprisoned  in  St.  Louis  for  murder,  that  some  of  the  chiefs 
were  sent  down  to  provide  for  their  defence  ;  that  whilst  there, 
and  without  the  consent  of  the  nation,  they  were  induced  to  sell 
the  Indian  country ;  that  when  they  came  home,  it  appeared 
that  they  had  been  drunk  most  of  the  time  they  were  absent, 
and  could  give  no  account  of  what  they  had  done,  except  that 
they  had  sold  some  land  to  the  white  people,  and  had  come 
home  loaded  with  presents  and  Indian  finery.  This  was  all  that 
the  nation  ever  heard  or  knew  about  the  treaty  of  1804.* 

*  It  may  be  well  here  to  mention,  that  some  historians  of  the  Black 
Hawk  war  have  taken  much  of  the  matter  of  their  histories  from  a  life 
of  Black  Hawk  written  at  Rock  Island  in  1833  or  1834,  purporting  to 
have  been  his  own  statements  written  down  on  the  spot.  This  work 
has  misled  many.  Black  Hawk  knew  but  little,  if  anything,  about  it. 
In  point  of  fact,  it  was  got  up  from  the  statements  of  Mr.  Antoine  Le 
Clere  and  CoL  Davenport,  and  was  written  by  a  printer,  and  was  never 
intended  for  anything  but  a  catch-penny  publication.  Mr.  Le  Clere 
was  a  half-breed  Indian  interpreter,  and  Col.  Davenport  an  old  Indian 
trader,  whose  sympathies  were  strongly  enlisted  in  favor  of  the  Indiana, 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  Ill 

Under  the  pretence  that  this  treaty  was  void,  he  resisted  the 
order  of  the  government  for  the  removal  of  his  tribe  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  In  the  spring  of  1831,  he  recrossed  the  river, 
with  his  women  and  children  and  three  hundred  warriors  of 
the  British  band,  together  with  some  allies  from  the  Pottawat- 
omie  and  Kickapoo  nations,  to  establish  himself  upon  his  an- 
cient hunting-grounds  and  in  the  principal  village  of  his  nation. 
He  ordered  the  white  settlers  away,  threw  down  their  fences, 
unroofed  their  houses,  cut  up  their  grain,  drove  off  and  killed 
their  cattle,  and  threatened  the  people  with  death  if  they  re- 
mained. The  settlers  made  their  complaints  to  Governor  Rey- 
nolds. These  acts  of  the  Indians  were  considered  by  the  gov- 
ernor to  be  an  invasion  of  the  State.  He  immediately  addressed 
letters  to  Gen.  Gaines  of  the  United  States  army,  and  to  Gen. 
Clark  the  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs,  calling  upon  them  to 
use  the  influence  of  the  government  to  procure  the  peaceful  re- 
moval of  the  Indians,  if  possible ;  at  all  events  to  defend  and 
protect  the  American  citizens  who  had  purchased  those  lands 
from  the  United  States,  and  were  now  about  to  be  ejected  by 
the  Indians.  Gen.  Gaines  repaired  to  Rock  Island,  with  a  few 
companies  of  regular  soldiers,  and  soon  ascertained  that  the  In- 
dians were  bent  upon  war.  He  immediately  called  upon  Gov- 
ernor Reynolds  for  seven  hundred  mounted  volunteers.  The 

and  whose  interest  it  was  to  retain  the  Indians  in  the  country  for  the 
purposes  of  trade.  Hence  the  gross  perversion  of  facts  in  that  book, 
attributing  this  war  to  the  border  white  people,  when  in  point  of  fact 
these  border  white  people  had  bought  and  paid  for  the  land  on  which 
they  lived  from  the  government,  which  had  a  title  to  it  by  three  dif- 
ferent treaties.  They  were  quietly  and  peaceably  living  upon  their 
lands  when  the  Indians,  under  Black  Hawk,  attempted  to  dispossess 
them.  As  yet,  I  have  seen  no  excuse  for  Black  Hawk's  second  inva- 
sion of  the  State  in  breach  of  his  own  treaty  with  Gen.  Gaines  in  1831 ; 
but  the  sympathizers  with  the  Indians  skip  over  and  take  no  notice  of 
that  treaty,  so  determined  have  they  been  to  please  their  own  country- 
men at  all  hazards. 


112  HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS. 

governor  obeyed  the  requisition.  A  call  was  made  upon  some 
of  the  northern  and  central  counties,  in  obedience  to  which  fif- 
teen hundred  volunteers  rushed  to  his  standard  at  Beardstown, 
and  about  the  10th  of  June  were  organized  and  ready  to  be 
marched  to  the  seat  of  war.  The  whole  force  was  divided  into 
two  regiments,  an  odd  battalion  and  a  spy  battalion.  The  1st 
regiment  was  commanded  by  Col.  James  D.  Henry,  the  2d 
by  Col.  Daniel  Lieb,  the  odd  battalion  by  Major  Nathaniel 
Buckmaster,  and  the  spy  battalion  by  Major  Samuel  Whiteside. 
The  whole  brigade  was  put  under  the  command  of  Major  Gen- 
eral Joseph  Duncan,  of  the  State  Militia.  This  was  the  largest 
military  force  of  Illinoisians  which  had  ever  been  assembled  in 
the  State,  and  made  an  imposing  appearance  as  it  traversed  the 
then  unbroken  wilderness  of  prairie. 

The  army  proceeded  in  four  days  to  the  Mississippi,  at  a  place 
now  called  Rockport,  about  eight  miles  below  the  mouth  of 
Rock  river,  where  it  met  Gen.  Gaines  in  a  steamboat,  with  a 
supply  of  provisions.  Here  it  encamped  for  one  night,  and 
here  the  two  generals  concerted  a  plan  of  operations.  Gen. 
Gaines  had  been  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Indian  town  for  about  a 
month,  during  which  time  it  might  be  supposed  that  he  had 
made  himself  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  localities  and 
topography  of  the  country.  The  next  morning  the  volunteers 
marched  forward,  with  an  old  regular  soldier  for  a  guide. 
The  steamboat  with  Gen.  Gaines  ascended  the  river.  A  battle 
was  expected  to  be  fought  that  day  on  Vandruff's  Island,  oppo- 
site the  Indian  town.  The  plan  was  for  the  volunteers  to  cross 
the  slough  on  to  this  island,  give  battle  to  the  enemy  if  found 
there,  and  then  to  ford  the  main  river  into  the  town,  where  they 
were  to  be  met  by  the  regular  force  coming  down  from  the 
fort.  The  island  was  covered  with  bushes  and  vines,  so  as  to 
be  impenetrable  to  the  sight  at  the  distance  of  twenty  feet. 
General  Gaines  ran  his  steamboat  up  to  the  point  of  the  island, 
and  fired  several  rounds  of  grape  and  canister  shot  into  it  to 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  113 

test  the  presence  of  an  enemy.  The  spy  battalion  formed  in 
line  of  battle,  and  swept  the  island  ;  but  it  was  soon  ascertained 
that  the  ground  rose  so  high  within  a  short  distance  of  the  bank, 
that  General  Gaines's  shot  could  not  have  taken  effect  one  hun- 
dred yards  from  the  shore.  The  main  body  of  the  volunteers, 
in  three  columns,  came  following  the  spies  ;  but  before  they  had 
got  to  the  northern  side  of  the  island,  they  were  so  jammed  up 
and  mixed  together,  officers  and  men,  that  no  man  knew  his 
own  company  or  regiment,  or  scarcely  himself.  Gen.  Gaines 
had  ordered  the  artillery  of  the  regular  army  to  be  stationed  on 
a  high  bluff  which  looked  down  upon  the  contemplated  battle- 
field a  half  mile  distant,  from  whence,  in  case  of  battle  with 
the  Indians  in  the  tangled  thickets  of  the  island,  their  shot  were 
likely  to  kill  more  of  their  friends  than  their  enemies.  It 
would  have  been  impossible  for  the  artillerists  to  distinguish 
one  from  the  other.  And  when  the  army  arrived  at  the  main 
river,  they  found  it  a  bold,  deep  stream,  not  fordable  for  a  half 
mile  or  more  above  by  horses,  and  no  means  of  transportation 
was  then  ready  to  ferry  them  over.  Here  they  were  in  sight 
of  the  Indian  town,  with  a  narrow  but  deep  river  running  be- 
tween, and  here  the  principal  part  of  them  remained  until  scows 
could  be  brought  to  ferry  them  across  it. 

When  the  volunteers  reached  the  town  they  found  no  enemy 
there.  The  Indians  had  quietly  departed  the  same  morning  in 
their  canoes  for  the  western  side  of  the  Mississippi.  Whilst  in 
camp  twelve  miles  below  the  evening  before,  a  canoe  load  of 
Indians  came  down  with  a  white  flag  to  tell  the  General  that 
they  were  peaceable  Indians,  that  they  expected  a  great  battle 
to  come  off  next  day,  that  they  desired  to  remain  neutral,  and 
wanted  to  retire  with  their  families  to  some  place  of  safety,  and 
they  asked  to  know  where  that  was  to  be.  General  Gaines  an- 
swered  them  very  abruptly,  and  told  them  to  be  off  and  go  to 
the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi.  That  night  they  returned  to 
their  town,  and  the  next  morning  early  the  whole  band  of  hos- 


114  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

tile  Indians  re-crossed  the  river,  and  thus  entitled  themselves  to 
protection. 

It  has  been  stated  to  me  by  Judge  William  Thomas,  of  Jack- 
sonville, who  acted  as  quartermaster  of  the  brigade  of  volun- 
teers, that  Gaines  and  Duncan  had  reason  to  believe,  before  the 
commencement  of  the  march  from  the  camp  on  the  Mississippi, 
that  the  Indians  had  departed  from  their  village,  that  measures 
had  been  taken  to  ascertain  the  fact  before  the  volunteers  cross- 
ed to  Vandruff 's  Island,  that  Gen.  Duncan  in  company  with  the 
advanced  guard,  following  the  spies  preceded  the  main  army 
in  crossing,  and  that  this  will  account  for  the  want  of  order  and 
confusion  in  the  march  of  the  troops. 

I  was  myself  in  company  with  the  spies,  I  arrived  at  the  river 
a  mile  in  advance  of  the  army,  I  saw  Gen.  Gaines  ascend  with 
his  boat  to  the  point  of  the  island,  was  within  one  hundred 
yards  of  him  when  he  fired  into  the  island  to  test  the  presence 
of  the  Indians ;  I  marched  ahead  with  the  spies  across  the  island, 
saw  with  my  own  eyes  the  elevation  of  the  land  near  the  shore, 
which  would  have  prevented  cannon-shot  taking  effect  more 
than  one  hundred  yards.  I  also  know  the  condition  of  the  island 
as  to  bushes  and  vines,  and  saw  the  artillery  force  from  the  fort 
stationed  on  the  high  bluff  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  I 
was  on  the  bank  of  the  main  river  when  Gen.  Duncan  came  up, 
followed,  soon  after,  by  his  brigade  in  the  utmost  confusion,  and 
heard  him  reprimand  John  S.  Miller,  a  substantial  and  worthy 
citizen  of  Rock  Island,  for  not  letting  him  know  that  the  main 
river  was  on  the  north  side  of  the  island ;  and  I  heard  Miller 
curse  him  to  his  face  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  for  refusing  his 
services  as  guide  when  offered  the  evening  before ;  and  then 
censuring  him  for  not  giving  information  which  he  had  refused 
to  receive.  I  give  the  facts  as  I  personally  know  them  to  be 
true,  and  leave  it  to  others  to  judge  whether  the  two  Generals 
knew  of  the  departure  of  the  Indians ;  had  taken  proper  meas- 
ure£  to  ascertain  the  presence  of  an  enemy,  or  had  made  the 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  115 

best  disposition  for  a  battle  if  the  Indians  had  been  found  either 
at  their  village  or  on  the  island.  Much  credit  is  undoubtedly 
due  to  Gov.  Reynolds  and  Gen.  Duncan  for  the  unprecedented 
quickness  with  which  the  brigade  was  called  out,  and  organized, 
and  marched  to  the  seat  of  war,  and  neither  of  them  are  justly 
responsible  for  what  was  arranged  for  them  by  Gen.  Gaines. 

The  enemy  having  escaped,  the  volunteers  were  determined 
to  be  avenged  upon  something.  The  rain  descended  in  torrents, 
and  the  Indian  wigwams  would  have  furnished  a  comfortable 
shelter ;  but  notwithstanding  the  rain,  the  whole  town  was  soon 
wrapped  in  flames,  and  thus  perished  an  ancient  village  which  had 
once  been  the  delightful  home  of  six  or  seven  thousand  Indians ; 
where  generation  after  generation  had  been  born,  had  died  and 
been  buried ;  where  the  old  men  had  taught  wisdom  to  the 
young ;  whence  the  Indian  youth  had  often  gone  out  in  parties 
to  hunt  or  to  war,  and  returned  in  triumph  to  dance  around  the 
spoils  of  the  forest,  or  the  scalps  of  their  enemies ;  and  where 
the  dark-eyed  Indian  maidens,  by  their  presence  and  charms, 
had  made  it  a  scene  of  delightful  enchantment  to  many  an  ad- 
miring warrior. 

The  volunteers  marched  to  Rock  Island  next  morning,  and 
here  they  encamped  for  several  days,  precisely  where  the  town 
of  Rock  Island  is  now  situated.  It  was  then  in  a  complete 
state  of  nature,  a  romantic  wilderness.  Fort  Armstrong  was 
built  upon  a  rocky  cliff  on  the  lower  point  of  an  island  near  the 
centre  of  the  river,  a  little  way  above ;  the  shores  on  each  side 
formed  of  gentle  slopes  of  prairie  extending  back  to  bluffs  of 
considerable  height,  made  it  one  of  the  most  picturesque  scenes 
in  the  western  country.  The  river  here  is  a  beautiful  sheet  of 
clear,  swift-running  water,  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  wide, 
its  banks  on  both  sides  were  uninhabited,  except  by  Indians 
from  the  lower  rapids  to  the  fort,  and  the  voyage  up-stream  af- 
ter several  days'  solitary  progress  through  a  wilderness  country 
on  its  borders  came  suddenly  in  sight  of  the  white- washed  walls 


116  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

and  towers  of  the  fort,  perched  upon  a  rock  surrounded  by  the 
grandeur  and  beauty  of  nature,  which  at  a  distance  gave  it  the 
appearance  of  one  of  those  enchanted  castles  in  an  uninhabited 
desert,  so  well  described  in  the  Arabian-Nights  Entertainments. 

General  Gaines  threatened  to  pursue  the  Indians  across  the 
river,  which  brought  Black  Hawk,  and  the  chiefs  and  braves  of 
the  hostile  band,  to  the  fort  to  sue  for  peace.  A  treaty  was  here 
formed  with  them,  by  which  they  agreed  to  remain  forever  after 
on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  and  never  to  recross  it  without 
the  permission  of  the  president  or  the  governor  of  the  State. 
And  thus  these  Indians  at  last  ratified  the  treaty  of  1804,  by 
which  their  lands  were  sold  to  the  white  people,  and  they  agreed 
to  live  in  peace  with  the  government. 

But  notwithstanding  this  treaty,  early  in  the  spring  of  1832, 
Black  Hawk  and  the  disaffected  Indians  prepared  to  reassert 
their  right  to  the  disputed  territory. 

The  united  Sacs  and  Fox  nations  were  divided  into  two  parties. 
Black  Hawk  commanded  the  warlike  band,  and  Keokuk,  another 
chief,  headed  the  band  which  was  in  favor  of  peace.  Keokuk 
was  a  bold,  sagacious  leader  of  his  people,  was  gifted  with  a  wild 
and  stirring  eloquence,  rare  to  be  found  even  among  Indians,  by 
means  of  which  he  retained  the  greater  part  of  his  nation  in 
amity  with  the  white  people.  But  nearly  all  the  bold,  turbu- 
lent spirits,  who  delighted  in  mischief,  arranged  themselves 
under  the  banners  of  his  rival.  Black  Hawk  had  with  him  the 
chivalry  of  his  nation,  with  which  he  recrossed  the  Mississippi 
in  the  spring  of  1832.  He  directed  his  march  to  the  Rock  river 
country,  and  this  time  aimed,  by  marching  up  the  river  into 
the  countries  of  the  Pottawattomies  and  Winnebagoes,  to  make 
them  his  allies.  Governor  Reynolds,  upon  being  informed  of 
the  facts,  made  another  call  for  volunteers.  In  a  few  days 
eighteen  hundred  men  rallied  under  his  banner  at  Beardstown. 
This  force  was  organized  into  four  regiments  and  a  spy  bat- 
talion. Col.  Dewit  commanded  the  1st  regiment,  Col.  Fry 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  117 

the  2d,  Col.  Thomas  the  3d,  Col.  Thompson  the  4th,  and  Col. 
James  D.  Henry  commanded  the  spy  battalion.  The  whole 
brigade  was  put  under  the  command  of  Brigadier  Gen.  Samuel 
Whiteside,  of  the  State  militia,  who  had  commanded  the  spy 
battalion  in  the  first  campaign. 

On  the  27th  of  April,  Gen.  Whiteside,  accompanied  by  Gov. 
Reynolds,  took  up  his  line  of  march.  The  army  proceeded  by 
way  of  Oquaka,  on  the  Mississippi,  to  the  mouth  of  Rock  river, 
and  here  it  was  agreed  between  Gen.  Whiteside  and  Gen.  At- 
kinson, of  the  regulars,  that  the  volunteer^  should  march  up 
Rock  river,  about  fifty  miles  to  the  Prophet's  town,  and  there 
encamp  to  feed  and  rest  their  horses,  and  await  the  arrival  of 
the  regular  troops  in  keel  boats  with  provisions.  Judge  Wil- 
liam .Thomas,  who  again  acted  as  quartermaster  to  the  volun- 
teers, made  an  estimate  of  the  amount  of  provisions  required 
until  the  boats  could  arrive,  which  was  supplied,  and  then  Gen. 
WThiteside  took  up  his  line  of  march.  But  when  he  arrived  at  the 
Prophet's  town,  instead  of  remaining  there,  his  men  set  fire  to 
the  village,  which  was  entirely  consumed,  and  the  brigade 
marched  on  in  the  direction  of  Dixon,  forty  miles  higher  up  the 
river.  When  the  volunteers  had  arrived  within  a  short  dis- 
tance of  Dixon,  orders  were  given  to  leave  the  baggage  wagons 
behind,  so  as  to  reach  there  by  a  forced  march.  And  for  the 
relief  of  the  horses,  the  men  left  large  quantities  of  provisions 
behind  with  the  wagons.  At  Dixon,  Gen.  Whiteside  came  to 
a  halt,  to  await  a  junction  with  Gen.  Atkinson,  with  provis- 
ions and  the  regular  forces ;  and  from  here  parties  were  sent 
out  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy  and  ascertain  his  position.  The 
army  here  found  upon  its  arrival  two  battalions  of  mounted 
volunteers,  consisting  of  275  men,  from  the  counties  of  M'Lean, 
Tazewell,  Peoria,  and  Fulton,  under  the  command  of  Majors 
Stillman  and  Bailey.  The  officers  of  this  force  begged  to  be 
put  forward  upon  some  dangerous  service,  in  which  they  could 
distinguish  themselves.  To  gratify  them  they  were  ordered 


118  mSTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

up  Rock  river  to  spy  out  the  Indians.  Major  Stillman  began 
his  march  on  the  12th  of  May,  and  pursuing  his  way  on  the 
south-east  side,  he  came  to  "  Old  Man's"  creek,  since  called 
"  Stillman's  Run,"  a  small  stream  which  rises  in  White  Rock 
Grove,  in  Ogle  county,  and  falls  into  the  river  near  Blooming- 
ville.  Here  he  encamped  just  before  night ;  and  in  a  short 
time  a  party  of  Indians  on  horseback  were  discovered  on  a 
rising  ground  about  one  mile  distant  from  the  encampment. 
A  party  of  Stillman's  men  mounted  their  horses  without  orders 
or  commander,  and  were  soon  followed  by  others,  stringing 
along  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  to  pursue  the  Indians  and  attack 
them.  The  Indians  retreated  after  displaying  a  red  flag,  the 
emblem  of  defiance  and  war,  but  were  overtaken  and  three  of 
them  slain.  Here  Major  Samuel  Hackelton,  being  dismounted 
in  the  engagement,  distinguished  himself  by  a  combat  with  one 
of  the  Indians,  in  which  the  Indian  was  killed,  and  Major  Hack- 
elton afterwards  made  his  way  on  foot  to  the  camp  of  Gen. 
Whiteside.  Black  Hawk  was  near  by  with  his  main  force,  and 
being  prompt  to  repel  an  assault,  soon  rallied  his  men,  amount- 
ing then  to  about  seven  hundred  warriors,  and  moved  down 
upon  Major  Stillman's  camp,  driving  the  disorderly  rabble,  the 
recent  pursuers,  before  him.  These  valorous  gentlemen,  lately 
so  hot  in  pursuit,  when  the  enemy  were  few,  were  no  less  hasty 
in  their  retreat,  when  coming  in  contact  with  superior  numbers. 
They  came  with  their  horses  in  a  full  run,  and  in  this  manner 
broke  through  the  camp  of  Major  Stillman,  spreading  dismay 
and  terror  among  the  rest  of  his  men,  who  immediately  began 
to  join  in  the  flight,  so  that  no  effort  to  rally  them  could  possi- 
bly have  succeeded.  Major  Stillman,  now  too  late  to  remedy 
the  evils  of  insubordination  and  disorder  in  his  command,  did 
all  that  was  practicable,  by  ordering  his  men  to  fall  back  in 
order,  and  form  on  higher  ground ;  but  as  the  prairie  rose  be- 
hind them  for  more  than  a  mile,  the  ground  for  a  rally  was 
never  discovered ;  and  besides  this,  when  the  men  once  got 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  119 

their  backs  to  the  enemy,  they  commenced  a  retreat,  without 
one  thought  of  making  a  further  stand.  A  retreat  of  undis- 
ciplined militia  from  the  attack  of  a  superior  force,  is  apt  to  be 
a  disorderly  and  inglorious  flight ;  and  so  it  was  here,  each  man 
sought  his  own  individual  safety,  and  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye 
the  whole  detachment  was  in  utter  confusion.  They  were  pur- 
sued in  their  flight  by  thirty  or  forty  Indians,  for  ten  or  twelve 
miles,  the  fugitives  in  the  rear  keeping  up  a  flying  fire  as  they 
ran,  until  the  Indians  ceased  pursuing. 

But  there  were  some  good  soldiers  and  brave  men  in  Still- 
man's  detachment,  whose  individual  efforts  succeeded  in  check- 
ing the  career  of  the  Indians,  whereby  many  escaped  that  night 
who  would  otherwise  have  been  the  easy  victims  of  the  enemy. 
Amongst  these  were  Major  Perkins  and  Captain  Adams,  who 
fell  in  the  rear,  bravely  fighting  to  cover  the  retreat  of  their 
fugitive  friends.  But  Major  Stillman  and  his  men  pursued 
their  flight  without  looking  to  the  right  or  the  left,  until  they 
were  safely  landed  at  Dixon.  The  party  came  straggling  into 
camp  all  night  long,  four  or  five  at  a  time,  each  fresh  arrival 
confident  that  all  who  had  been  left  behind  had  been  massacred 
by  the  Indians.  The  enemy  was  stated  to  be  just  behind  in  full 
pursuit,  and  their  arrival  was  looked  for  every  moment.  Eleven 
of  Stillman's  men  were  killed,  and  it  is  only  astonishing  that 
the  number  was  so  few. 

It  is  said  that  a  big,  tall  Kentucldan,  with  a  very  loud  voice, 
who  was  a  colonel  of  the  militia,  but  a  private  with  Stillman, 
upon  his  arrival  in  camp  gave  to  Gen.  Whiteside  and  the  won- 
dering multitude  the  following  glowing  and  bombastic  account 
of  the  battle  :  "  Sirs,"  said  he,  "  our  detachment  was  encamped 
amongst  some  scattering  timber  on  the  north  side  of  Old  Man's 
creek,  with  the  prairie  from  the  north  gently  sloping  down  to 
our  encampment.  It  was  just  after  twilight,  in  the  gloaming 
of  the  evening,  when  we  discovered  Black  Hawk's  army  coming 
down  upon  us  in  solid  column ;  they  displayed  in  the  form  of  a 


120  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

crescent  upon  the  brow  of  the  prairie,  and  such  accuracy  and 
precision  of  military  movements  were  never  witnessed  by  man ; 
they  were  equal  to  the  best  troops  of  Wellington,  in  Spain.  I 
have  said  that  the  Indians  came  down  in  solid  column,  and  dis- 
played in  the  form  of  a  crescent ;  and  what  was  most  wonder- 
ful, there  were  large  squares  of  cavalry  resting  upon  the  points 
of  the  curve,  which  squares  were  supported  again  by  other 
columns  fifteen  deep,  extending  back  through  the  woods  and 
over  a  swamp  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  which  again  rested  upon 
the  main  body  of  Black  Hawk's  army  bivouaced  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Kishwakee.  It  was  a  terrible  and  a  glorious  sight 
to  see  the  tawny  warriors  as  they  rode  along  our  flanks  at- 
tempting to  outflank  us  with  the  glittering  moonbeams  glisten- 
ing from  their  polished  blades  and  burnished  spears.  It  was  a 
sight  well  calculated  to  strike  consternation  into  the  stoutest 
and  boldest  heart,  and  accordingly  our  men  soon  began  to  break 
in  small  squads,  for  tall  timber.  In  a  very  little  time  the  route 
became  general,  the  Indians  were  upon  our  flanks  and  threaten- 
ed the  destruction  of  the  entire  detachment.  About  this  time 
Major  Stillman,  Col.  Stephenson,  Major  Perkins,  Capt.  Adams, 
Mr.  Hackelton,  and  myself  with  some  others,  threw  ourselves 
into  the  rear  to  rally  the  fugitives  and  protect  the  retreat.  But 
in  a  short  time  all  my  companions  fell,  bravely  fighting  hand 
to  hand  with  the  savage  enemy,  and  I  alone  was  left  upon  the 
field  of  battle.  About  this  time  I  discovered  not  far  to  the  left 
a  corps  of  horsemen  which  seemed  to  be  in  tolerable  order.  J 
immediately  deployed  to  the  left,  when  leaning  down  and 
placing  my  body  in  a  recumbent  posture  upon  the  mane  of  my 
horse,  so  as  to  bring  the  heads  of  the  horsemen  between  my 
eye  and  the  horizon,  I  discovered  by  the  light  of  the  moon  that 
they  were  gentlemen  who  did  not  wear  hats,  by  which  token  I 
knew  they  were  no  friends  of  mine.  I  therefore  made  a  retro- 
grade movement  and  recovered  my  former  position,  where  I 
remained  some  time  meditating  what  further  1  could  do  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  121 

service  of  my  country,  when  a  random-ball  came  whistling  by 
my  ear  and  plainly  whispered  to  me,  '  stranger,  you  have  no 
further  business  here.'  Upon  hearing  this,  I  followed  the  ex- 
ample of  my  companions  in  arms,  and  broke  for  tall  timber, 
and  the  way  I  run  was  not  a  little,  and  quit." 

This  colonel  was  a  lawyer,  just  returning  from  the  circuit 
with  a  slight  wardrobe  and  Chitty's  Pleadings  packed  in  his 
saddle-bags,  all  of  which  were  captured  by  the  Indians.  He 
afterwards  related,  with  much  vexation,  that  Black  Hawk  had 
decked  himself  out  in  his  finery,  appearing  in  the  wild  woods, 
amongst  his  savage  companions,  dressed  in  one  of  the  colonel's 
ruffled  shirts  drawn  over  his  deer-skin  leggings,  with  a  volume 
of  Chitty's  Pleadings  under  each  arm. 

Major  Stillman  and  his  men  were  for  a  long-time  afterwards 
the  subject  of  thoughtless  merriment  and  ridicule,  which  were 
as  undeserved  as  their  battle,  if  so  it  may  be  called,  had  been 
unfortunate.  The  party  was  raw  militia ;  it  had  been  but  a 
few  days  in  the  field  ;  the  men  were  wholly  without  discipline, 
and,  as  yet,  without  confidence  in  each  other,  or  in  their  officers. 

This  confidence  they  had  not  been  long  enough  together  to 
acquire.  Any  other  body  of  men,  under  the  same  circum- 
stances, would  have  acted  no  better.  They  were  as  good  a 
material  for  an  army,  if  properly  drilled  and  disciplined,  as 
could  be  found  elsewhere. 

In  the  night,  after  their  arrival  at  Dixon,  the  trumpet  sounded 
a  signal  for  the  officers  to  assemble  at  the  tent  of  Gen.  White- 
side.  A  council  of  war  was  held,  in  which  it  was  agreed  to 
march  early  the  next  morning  to  the  fatal  field  of  that  even- 
ing's disaster.  In  consequence  of  the  ill-advised  and  misjudged 
march  from  the  Prophet's  town,  the  wastefulness  of  the  volun- 
teers, and  leaving  the  baggage  wagons  behind  to  make  a  forced 
march  without  motive  or  necessity,  there  were  no  provisions  in 
the  camp,  except  in  the  messes  of  the  most  careful  and  ex- 
perienced men.  The  majority  had  been  living  upon  parched 

6 


122  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

corn  and  coffee  for  two  or  three  days.  But  Quartermaster 
Thomas,  anticipating  the  result  of  the  council,  went  out  in 
search  of  cattle  and  hogs,  which  were  obtained  of  Mr.  John 
Dixon,  then  the  only  white  inhabitant  on  Rock  river,  above  its 
mouth.  By  this  means,  before  daylight  the  next  morning  the 
army  was  supplied  with  some  fresh  beef,  which  they  ate  with- 
out bread;  and  now  they  began  their  march  for  the  scene  of 
the  disaster  of  the  night  before.  When  the  volunteers  arrived 
there  the  Indians  were  gone.  They  had  scattered  out  all  over 
the  country,  some  of  them  further  up  Rock  river,  and  others 
towards  the  nearest  settlements  of  white  people. 

A  party  of  about  seventy  Indians  made  a  descent  upon  the 
small  settlement  of  Indian  creek,  a  tributary  of  Fox  river,  and 
there,  within  fifteen  miles  of  Ottawa,  they  massacred  fifteen 
persons,  men,  women,  and  children,  of  the  families  of  Messrs. 
Hall,  Davis,  and  Pettigrew,  and  took  two  young  women  pris- 
oners. These  were  Silvia  and  Rachel  Hall,  the  one  about  sev- 
enteen and  the  other  about  fifteen  years  old. 

This  party  of  Indians  immediately  retreated  into  the  Win- 
nebago  country,  up  Rock  river,  carrying  the  scalps  of  the  slain 
and  their  prisoners  with  them.  Indian  wars  are  the  wars  of  a 
past  age.  They  have  always  been  characterized  by  the  same 
ferocity  and  cruelty  on  the  part  of  the  Indians.  To  describe 
this  massacre  is  only  to  repeat  what  has  been  written  a  hundred 
times ;  but  the  history  of  this  war  would  be  imperfect  without 
some  account  of  it.  The  Indians  approached  the  house  in 
which  the  three  families  were  assembled,  in  the  day  time. 
They  entered  it  suddenly,  with  but  little  notice.  Some  of  the 
inmates  were  immediately  shot  down  with  rifles,  others  were 
pierced  through  with  spears  or  despatched  with  the  tomahawk: 
The  Indians  afterwards  related  with  an  infernal  glee,  how  the 
women  had  squeaked  like  geese  when  they  were  run  through 
the  body  with  spears,  or  felt  the  sharp  tomahawk  entering  their 
their  heads.  All  the  victims  were  carefully  scalped ;  their 


HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS.  123 

bodies  were  mutilated  and  mangled ;  the  little  children  were 
chopped  to  pieces  with  axes  ;  and  the  women  were  tied  up  by 
the  heels  to  the  walls  of  the  house ;  their  clothes  falling  over 
their  heads,  left  their  naked  persons  exposed  to  the  public 
gaze. 

The  young  women  prisoners  were  hurried  by  forced  marches 
beyond  the  reach  of  pursuit.  After  a  long  and  fatiguing  jour- 
ney with  their  Indian  conductors,  through  a  wilderness  country, 
with  but  little  to  eat,  and  being  subjected  to  a  variety  of  for- 
tune, they  were  at  last  purchased  by  the  chiefs  of  the  Winne- 
bagoes,  employed  by  Mr.  Gratiot  for  the  purpose,  with  two 
thousand  dollars,  in  horses,  wampum,  and  trinkets,  and  were 
safely  returned  to  their  friends. 

Gen.  Whiteside,  finding  no  Indians  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
recent  battle-field,  and  being  destitute  of  provisions,  contented 
himself  with  burying  the  dead.  He  gathered  up  their  muti- 
lated bodies  as  well  as  he  could,  and  buried  them  in  a  common 
grave,  on  a  ridge  of  land  on  the  old  trace,  south  of  "  Stillman's 
run,"  and  put  up  a  rude  board,  hewn  from  a  tree,  as  a  memo- 
rial of  the  slain.  He  then  returned  to  Dixon,  where,  on  the 
next  day,  Gen.  Atkinson  arrived  with  provisions  and  the  regu- 
lar forces.  The  army  now  amounted  to  twenty-four  hundred, 
and  had  the  men  been  willing  to  serve  longer,  the  war  could 
have  been  ended  in  less  than  a  month,  by  the  capture  or  de- 
struction of  all  Black  Hawk's  forces.  But  the  volunteers  were 
anxious  to  be  discharged.  Their  term  of  service  had  nearly 
expired.  Many  of  them  had  left  their  business  in  such  a  con- 
dition as  to  require  their  presence  at  home  ;  and  besides  this, 
there  was  much  dissatisfaction  with  the  commanding  general. 
To  require  further  service  from  unwilling  men  was  worse  than 
useless,  for  a  militia  force  will  never  do  any  good  unless  their 
hearts  prompt  them  to  a  cheerful  alacrity  in  performing  their 
duty.  The  militia  can  never  be  forced  to  fight  against  their 
will.  Their  hearts  as  well  as  their  bodies  must  be  in  the 


124  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

service ;  and  to  do  any  good,  they  must  feel  the  utmost  con- 
fidence in  their  officers.  They  were  first  marched  back  to  the 
battle-field  in  pursuit  of  the  Indians,  and  then,  by  Pawpaw 
Grove  and  Indian  creek,  to  Ottawa,  where  the  whole,  at  their 
urgent  request,  were  discharged  by  Governor  Reynolds,  on  the 
27th  and  28th  of  May. 

The  governor  had  previously  issued  orders  for  raising  two 
thousand  additional  volunteers,  to  rendezvous  at  Beardstown 
and  Hennepin.  In  the  meantime,  he  called  for  a  volunteer 
regiment  from  amongst  those  recently  discharged,  to  remain  in 
defence  of  the  country  until  the  new  forces  could  be  assembled. 
Such  a  regiment  was  readily  raised,  of  which  Jacob  Fry  was 
elected  colonel,  James  D.  Henry  lieutenant-colonel,  and  John 
Thomas  major.  Whiteside,  the  late  commanding  general,  vol- 
unteered as  a  private.  The  different  companies  of  this  regiment 
were  so  disposed  of  as  to  guard  all  the  frontiers.  Captain  Adam 
W.  Snyder  was  sent  to  range  through  the  country  between 
Rock  river  and  Galena;  and  whilst  he  was  encamped  not  far 
distant  from  Burr  Oak  Grove,  on  the  night  of  the  17th  of  June, 
his  company  was  fired  upon  by  the  Indians ;  the  next  morning 
he  pursued  them,  four  in  number,  and  drove  them  into  a  sink- 
hole in  the  ground,  where  his  company  charged  on  them  and 
killed  the  whole  of  the  Indians,  with  the  loss  of  one  man  mor- 
tally wounded.  As  he  returned  to  his  camp,  bearing  his 
wounded  soldier,  the  men  suffering  much  from  thirst,  scattered 
in  search  of  water,  when  they  were  sharply  attacked  by  about 
seventy  Indians,  who  had  been  secretly  watching  their  motions, 
and  awaiting  a  good  opportunity.  His  men,  as  usual  in  such 
cases,  were  taken  by  surprise,  and  some  of  them  commenced  a 
hasty  retreat.  Captain  Snyder  called  upon  Gen.  Whiteside, 
then  a  private  in  his  company,  to  assist  him  in  forming  his 
men ;  the  general  proclaimed,  in  a  loud  voice,  that  he  would 
shoot  the  first  man  who  attempted  to  run.  The  men  were  soon 
formed  into  rank.  Both  parties  took  position  behind  trees. 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  125 

Here  General  Whiteside,  an  old  Indian  fighter  and  a  capital 
marksman  with  a  rifle,  shot  the  commander  of  the  Indians,  and 
they  from  that  moment  began  to  retreat.  As  they  were  not 
pursued,  the  Indian  loss  was  never  ascertained ;  but  the  other 
side  lost  two  men  killed  and  one  wounded.  Captain  Snyder, 
General  Whiteside,  and  Colonel  (now  General)  Semple,  are 
particularly  mentioned  as  having  behaved  in  the  most  honor- 
able and  courageous  manner  in  both  these  little  actions. 

On  the  15th  of  June,  the  new  levies  had  arrived  at  the  places 
of  rendezvous,  and  were  formed  into  three  brigades ;  General 
Alexander  Posey  commanded  the  1st,  General  Milton  K.  Alex- 
ander the  2d,  and  General  James  D.  Henry  commanded  the 
3d.  On  the  march  each  brigade  was  preceded  by  a  battalion 
of  spies,  commanded  by  a  major.  The  whole  volunteer  force 
this  time  amounted  to  three  thousand  two  hundred  men,  besides 
three  companies  of  rangers,  under  the  command  of  Major  Bo- 
gart,  left  behind  to  guard  the  frontier  settlements.  The  object 
in  calling  out  so  large  a  force  was  to  overawe  the  Pottawatto- 
mie  and  Winnebago  Indians,  who  were  hostile  in  their  feelings 
to  the  whites,  and  much  disposed  to  join  Black  Hawk's  party. 

But  before  the  new  army  could  be  brought  into  the  field,  the 
Indians  had  committed  several  murders.  One  man  was  killed 
on  Bureau  creek,  some  seven  or  eight  miles  above  Princeton ; 
another  in  Buffalo  Grove ;  another  between  Fox  river  and  the 
Illinois ;  and  two  more  on  the  east  side  of  Fox  river,  on  the 
Chicago  road,  about  six  miles  north-east  of  Ottawa.  On  the 
22d  of  May,  Gen.  Atkinson  had  despatched  Mr.  St.  Vrain,  the 
Indian  agent  for  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  at  Eock  Island,  with  a  few 
men,  as  an  express  to  Fort  Armstrong.  On  their  way  thither, 
they  fell  in  with  a  party  of  Indians  led  by  a  chief  well  known 
to  the  agent.  This  chief  was  called  "  The  little  bear,"  he  had 
been  a  particular  friend  of  the  agent,  and  had  adopted  him  as  a 
brother.  Mr.  St.  Vrain  felt  no  fear  of  one  who  was  his  friend, 
one  who  had  been  an  inmate  of  his  house,  and  who  had  adopted 


126  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

him  as  a  brother,  and  approached  the  Indians  with  the  greatest 
confidence  and  security.  But  the  treacherous  Indian,  untrue  in 
war  to  the  claims  of  gratitude,  friendship,  and  brotherhood,  no 
sooner  got  him  in  his  power,  than  he  murdered  and  scalped 
him  and  all  his  party,  with  as  little  compassion  as  if  he  had 
never  known  him  or  professed  to  be  his  friend. 

Not  long  after  the  new  forces  were  organized  on  the  Illinois 
river,  Black  Hawk,  with  a  hundred  and  fifty  warriors,  made 
an  attack  on  Apple  River  Fort,  situate  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
north  of  the  present  village  of  Elizabeth,  within  twelve  miles 
of  Galena,  and  defended  by  twenty-five  men,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  Stone.  This  fort  was  a  stockade  of  logs  stuck 
in  the  ground,  with  block-houses  at  the  corners  of  the  square, 
by  way  of  towers  and  bastions.  It  was  made  for  the  protection 
of  a  scattering  village  of  miners,  who  lived  in  their  houses  in 
the  vicinity  during  the  day,  and  retired  into  the  fort  for  protec- 
tion at  night.  The  women  and  children,  as  usual  in  the  day- 
time, were  abroad  in  the  village,  when  three  men  on  an  express 
from  Galena  to  Dixon,  were  fired  on  by  the  Indians  lurking  in 
ambush  within  a  half  mile  of  the  village,  and  retreated  into 
the  fort.  One  of  them  was  wounded ;  his  companions  stood 
by  him  nobly,  retreating  behind  him,  and  keeping  the  Indians 
at  bay  by  pointing  their  guns  first  at  one  and  then  at  another 
of  those  who  were  readiest  to  advance.  The  alarm  was  heard 
at  the  fort  in  time  to  rally  the  scattered  inhabitants ;  the  In- 
dians soon  came  up  within  firing  distance ;  and  now  commenced 
a  fearful  struggle  between  the  small  party  of  twenty -five  men 
in  the  fort,  against  six  times  their  number  of  the  enemy.  The 
Indians  took  possession  of  the  log-houses,  knocked  holes  in  the 
walls,  through  which  to  fire  at  the  fort  with  greater  security  to 
themselves,  and  whilst  some  were  firing  at  the  fort,  others 
broke  the  furniture,  destroyed  the  provisions,  and  cut  open  the 
beds  and  scattered  the  feathers  found  in  the  houses.  The  men 
in  the  fort  were  excited  to  the  highest  pitch  of  desperation ; 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  127 

they  believed  that  they  we  re  contending  with  an  enemy  who 
never  made  prisoners ;  and  that  the  result  of  the  contest  must 
be  victory  or  death,  and  a  horrid  death  too,  to  them  and  their 
families ;  the  women  and  children  moulded  the  bullets  and 
loaded  the  guns  for  their  husbands,  fathers,  and  brothers,  and 
the  men  fired  and  fought  with  a  fury  required  by  desperation 
itself.  In  this  manner  the  battle  was  kept  up  about  fifteen 
hours,  when  the  Indians  retreated.  The  number  of  their  killed 
and  wounded,  supposed  to  be  considerable,  was  never  ascer- 
tained, as  they  were  carried  away  in  the  retreat.  The  loss  in 
the  fort  was  one  man  killed  and  one  wounded.  One  of  the  men 
who  first  retreated  to  the  fort,  immediately  passed  on  to  Galena, 
and  there  gave  the  alarm.  Col.  Strode  of  the  militia,  who  com- 
manded in  Galena,  lost  no  time  in  marching  to  the  assistance 
of  the  fort,  but  before  his  arrival  the  Indians  had  raised  the 
siege  and  departed.  Galena  itself  had  been  in  imminent  danger 
of  attack  ;  at  that  time  it  was  a  village  of  four  hundred  inhab- 
itants, surrounded  on  every  side  by  the  enemy.  Col.  Strode, 
like  a  brave  and  prudent  commander,  took  every  possible 
measure  for  its  defence.  Even  here  in  this  extremity  of  dan- 
ger, a  number  of  the  inhabitants  yielded  their  assistance  un- 
willingly and  grudgingly.  There  were  a  number  of  aspirants 
for  office  and  command ;  and  quite  a  number  refused  obedience 
to  the  militia  commander  of  the  regiment ;  but  Col.  Strode 
took  the  most  effectual  mode  of  putting  down  these  discontents. 
He  immediately  declared  martial  law ;  the  town  was  converted 
Into  a  camp ;  men  were  forced  into  the  ranks  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet ;  and  a  press  warrant  from  the  colonel,  in  the  hands 
of  armed  men,  procured  all  necessary  supplies ;  preparations 
for  defence  were  kept  up  night  and  day ;  and  the  Indian  spies 
seeing  no  favorable  opportunity  for  attack,  no  considerable 
body  of  Indians  ever  came  nearer  the  town  than  Apple  Fort. 

About  the  time  of  the  siege  of  the  fort  a  party  of  Indians 
made  an  attack  on  three  men  near  Fort  Hamilton  in  the  lead 


128  HISTOKY   OF  ILLINOIS. 

mines,  two  of  the  men  were  killed  and  the  other  escaped.  Gen. 
Dodge,  of  Wisconsin,  who  happened  to  arrive  at  the  fort  soon 
after  with  twenty  men  under  his  command,  made  quick  pursuit 
after  these  Indians,  who  were  chased  to  the  Pekatonica,  and 
there  took  shelter  under  the  high  bank  of  the  river.  General 
Dodge  and  his  party  charged  upon  them  in  their  place  of  con- 
cealment and  shelter  and  killed  the  whole  party,  eleven  in  num- 
ber, with  the  loss  of  three  of  his  own  brave  men  mortally 
wounded,  and  one  who  afterwards  recovered.  This  little  action 
will  equal  any  for  courage,  brilliancy  and  success,  in  the  whole 
history  of  Indian  wars. 

About  this  time,  also,  Capt.  James  W.  Stephenson,  of  Galena, 
with  a  part  of  his  company,  pursued  a  party  of  Indians  into  a 
small  dense  round  thicket  in  the  prairie.  He  commenced  a 
severe  fire  upon  them  at  random,  within  firing  distance  of  the 
thicket,  but  the  Indians  having  every  advantage,  succeeded  in 
killing  a  few  of  his  men,  he  ordered  a  retreat.  Neither  he  nor 
the  men  were  willing  to  give  up  the  fight ;  and  they  came  to 
the  desperate  resolution  of  returning  and  charging  into  the 
thicket  upon  the  Indians.  The  command  to  charge  was  given ; 
the  men  obeyed  with  ardor  and  alacrity ;  the  captain  himself 
lead  the  way ;  but  before  they  had  penetrated  into  the  thicket 
twenty  steps,  the  Indians  fired  from  their  covert ;  the  fire  was 
instantly  returned ;  the  charge  was  made  a  second  and  third 
time,  each  time  giving  and  receiving  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  until 
three  more  of  his  men  lay  dead  on  the  ground,  and  he  himself 
was  severely  wounded.  It  now  became  necessary  to  retreat,  as 
he  had  from  the  first  but  a  small  part  of  his  company  along 
with  him.  This  attack  of  Capt.  Stephenson  was  unsuccessful, 
and  may  have  been  imprudent ;  but  it  equalled  anything  in 
modern  warfare,  in  daring  and  desperate  courage. 

The  Indians  had  now  shown  themselves  to  be  a  courageous, 
active  and  enterprising  enemy.  They  had  scattered  their  war 
parties  all  over  the  north,  from  Chicago  to  Galena,  and  from 


HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS.  129 

the  Illinois  river  into  the  territory  of  Wisconsin ;  they  occupied 
every  grove,  waylaid  every  road,  hung  around  every  settle- 
ment, and  attacked  every  party  of  white  men  that  attempted  to 
penetrate  the  country.  But  their  supremacy  in  the  field  was  of 
short  duration ;  for,  on  the  20th,  21st  and  22d  of  June,  the 
new  forces  assembled  on  the  Illinois  river,  were  put  in  motion 
by  Gen.  Atkinson  of  the  regular  army,  who  now  assumed  the 
command  over  the  whole.  Maj.  John  Dement,  with  a  battalion 
of  spies  attached  to  the  first  brigade,  was  sent  forward  in  ad- 
vance, whilst  the  main  army  was  to  follow  and  concentrate  at 
Dixon.  Maj.  Dement  pushed  forward  across  Rock  river,  and 
took  position  at  Kellogg's  Grove,  in  the  heart  of  the  Indian 
country. 

Major  Dement,  hearing  by  express,  on  the  25th  of  June,  that 
the  trail  of  about  five  hundred  Indians  leading  to  the  south, 
had  been  seen  within  five  miles  the  day  before,  ordered  his 
whole  command  to  saddle  their  horses  and  remain  in  readiness, 
whilst  he  himself,  with  twenty  men,  started  at  daylight  next 
morning  to  gain  intelligence  of  their  movements.  His  party 
had  advanced  about  three  hundred  yards  when  they  discovered 
seven  Indian  spies ;  some  of  his  men  immediately  made  pursuit, 
but  their  commander  fearing  an  ambuscade,  endeavored  to  call 
them  back.  In  this  manner  he  had  proceeded  about  a  mile ; 
and  being  followed  soon  after  by  a  number  of  his  men  from  the 
camp,  he  formed  about  twenty-five  of  them  into  line  on  the 
prairie,  to  protect  the  retreat  of  those  yet  in  pursuit.  He  had 
scarcely  done  this  before  he  discovered  three  hundred  Indians 
issuing  from  the  grove  to  attack  him.  The  enemy  came  up 
firing,  hallooing  and  yelling,  to  make  themselves  more  terrific, 
after  the  Indian  fashion ;  and  the  major  seeing  himself  in  great 
danger  of  being  surrounded  by  a  superior  force,  slowly  retired 
to  his  camp,  closely  pursued  by  the  Indians.  Here  his  whole 
party  took  possession  of  some  log-houses,  which  answered  for  a 
fort,  and  here  they  were  vigorously  attacked  by  the  Indians  for 

6* 


130  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

nearly  an  hour.  There  were  brave  soldiers  in  this  battalion, 
among  whom  were  Major  Dement  himself,  and  Lieut.  Gov. 
Casey,  a  private  in  the  ranks,  who  kept  up  such  an  active  fire 
upon  their  assailants,  and  with  such  good  aim,  that  the  Indians 
retreated  with  the  certain  loss  of  nine  men  left  dead  on  the  field, 
and  probably  five  others  carried  away.  The  loss  on  the  side 
of  the  whites  was  five  killed  and  three  wounded.  Major  De- 
ment had  previously  sent  an  express  to  Gen.  Posey,  who 
marched  with  his  whole  brigade  at  once  to  his  relief;  but  did 
not  arrive  for  two  hours  after  the  retreat  of  the  Indians.  Gen. 
Posey  moved  next  day  a  little  to  the  north  in  search  of  the  In- 
dians, then  marched  back  to  Kellogg's  Grove,  to  await  the  ar- 
rival of  his  baggage- wagons ;  and  then  to  Fort  Hamilton,  on  the 
Pekatonica. 

When  the  news  of  the  battle  at  Kellogg's  Grove  reached 
Dixon,  where  all  the  volunteers  and  the  regular  forces  were  then 
assembled  under  command  of  Gen.  Atkinson,  Alexander's  brig- 
ade was  ordered  in  the  direction  of  Plumb  river,  a  short  stream 
with  numerous  branches,  falling  into  the  Mississippi  thirty-five 
miles  below  Galena,  to  intercept  the  Indians  if  they  attempted 
in  that  direction  to  escape  by  re-crossing  the  river.  Gen.  At- 
kinson remained  with  the  infantry  at  Dixon  two  days,  and  then 
marched,  accompanied  by  the  brigade  of  Gen.  Henry,  towards 
the  country  of  the  four  lakes,  farther  up  Rock  river.  Colonel 
Jacob  Fry,  with  his  regiment,  was  despatched  in  advance  by 
Gen.  Henry,  to  meet  some  friendly  Indians  of  the  Pottawatto- 
mie  tribe,  commanded  by  Caldwell,  a  half-bred,  and  Shaubanie, 
the  war-chief  of  the  nation. 

Gen.  Atkinson  having  heard  that  Black  Hawk  had  concen- 
trated his  forces  at  the  four  lakes  and  fortified  his  position,  with 
the  intention  of  deciding  the  fate  of  the  war  by  a  general  battle, 
marched  with  as  much  haste  as  prudence  would  warrant  when 
invading  a  hostile  and  wilderness  country  with  undisciplined 


HISTORY  OF~  ILLINOIS.  131 

forces,  where  there  was  no  means  of  procuring  intelligence  of 
the  number  or  whereabouts  of  the  enemy. 

On  the  30th  of  June  he  passed  through  the  Turtle  village,  a 
considerable  town  of  the  Winnebagoes,  then  deserted  by  its 
inhabitants,  and  encamped  one  mile  above  it,  in  the  open  prai- 
rie near  Eock  river.  He  believed  that  the  hostile  Indians  were 
in  that  immediate  neighborhood,  and  prepared  to  resist  their 
attack,  if  one  should  be  made.  That  night  the  Indians  were 
prowling  about  the  encampment  tiU  morning.  Continual 
alarms  were  given  by  the  sentinels,  and  the  whole  command 
was  frequently  paraded  in  order  of  battle.  The  march  was 
continued  next  day,  and  nothing  occurred  until  the  army  arrived 
at  Lake  Kuskanong,  except  the  discovery  of  trails  and  Indian 
signs,  the  occasional  sight  of  an  Indian  spy,  and  the  usual  abun- 
dance of  false  alarms  amongst  men  but  little  accustomed  to 
war.  Here  the  army  was  joined  by  Gen.  Alexander's  brigade ; 
and  after  Major  Ewing  and  Col.  Fry,  with  the  battalion  of  the 
one  and  the  regiment  of  the  other,  had  thoroughly  examined 
the  whole  country  round  about,  and  had  ascertained  that  no 
enemy  was  near,  the  whole  force  again  marched  up  Rock  river 
on  the  east  side,  to  the  Burnt  village,  another  considerable  town 
of  the  Winnebagoes,  on  the  White  Water  river,  where  it  was 
joined  by  the  brigade  of  Gen.  Posey,  and  a  battalion  of  a  hun- 
dred men  from  Wisconsin,  commanded  by  Major  (now  Gen- 
eral) Dodge. 

During  the  march  to  this  place  the  scouts  had  captured  an 
old  blind  Indian  of  the  hostile  band,  nearly  famished  with  hun- 
ger, who  had  been  left  behind  by  his  friends,  (for  want  of  ability 
to  travel,)  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  or  to  perish 
by  famine.  Being,  as  he  said,  old,  blind,  and  helpless,  he  was 
never  consulted  or  advised  with  by  the  other  Indians,  and  could 
give  no  account  of  the  movements  of  his  party,  except  that  they 
had  gone  further  up  the  river.  One  historian  of  the  war  says 
that  the  army  magnanimously  concluded  not  to  kill  him,  but 


132  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

to  give  him  plenty  to  eat,  and  leave  him  behind  to  end  his  life 
in  a  pleasant  way  by  eating  himself  to  death.  The  old  man, 
however,  was  denied  this  melancholy  satisfaction ;  for  falling 
in  the  way  of  Posey's  men  as  they  were  marching  to  the  camp, 
he  was  quickly  despatched,  even  before  he  had  satisfied  his  nat- 
ural hunger.  This  barbarous  action  is  an  indelible  stain  upon 
the  men  of  that  brigade.  At  this  place,  also,  Captain  Dunn, 
at  present  a  judge  in  Wisconsin,  acting  as  officer  of  the  day 
of  one  of  the  regiments^was  shot  by  a  sentinel,  and  dangerously 
wounded. 

Up  to  the  time  of  reaching  the  burnt  village,  the  progress  of 
the  command  had  been  slow  and  uncertain.  The  country  was 
comparatively  an  unexplored  wilderness  of  forest  and  prairie. 
None  in  the  command  had  ever  been  through  it.  A  few,  who 
professed  to  know  something  of  it,  volunteered  to  act  as  guides, 
and  succeeded  in  electing  themselves  to  be  military  advisers  to 
the  commanding  general.  The  numbers  of  the  hostile  party 
were  unknown  ;  and  a  few  Winnebagoes  who  followed  the  camp, 
and  whose  fidelity  was  of  a  very  doubtful  character,  were  from 
necessity  much  listened  to,  but  the  intelligence  received  from 
them  was  always  delusive.  Short  marches,  frequent  stoppages, 
and  explorations  always  unsatisfactory,  were  the  result,  giving 
the  enemy  time  to  elude  the  pursuing  forces,  and  every  oppor- 
tunity of  ascertaining  their  probable  movements  and  intentions. 

The  evening  the  army  arrived  at  the  Burnt  village,  Captain 
Early,  with  his  company  of  spies,  returned  from  a  scout,  and 
reported  the  main  trail  of  the  Indians,  not  two  hours  old,  to  be 
three  miles  beyond.  It  was  determined  to  pursue  rapidly  next 
morning.  At  an  early  hour  next  day,  before  the  troops  were 
ready  to  march,  two  regular  soldiers,  fishing  in  the  river  one 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  camp,  were  fired  upon  by  two 
Indians  from  the  opposite  shore,  and  one  of  them  dangerously 
wounded.  A  part  of  the  volunteers  were  immediately  marched 
up  the  river  in  the  direction  indicated  by  Captain  Early,  and 


HISTOEY  OP   ILLINOIS.  133 

Col.  Fry's  regiment,  with  the  regulars,  were  left  behind  to  con- 
struct bridges,  and  cross  to  the  point  from  whicli  the  Indians 
had  shot  the  regular  soldier.  A  march  of  fifteen  miles  up  and 
across  the  river,  (fordable  above,)  proved  Captain  Early's  re- 
port to  be  incorrect :  no  trail  was  discoverable.  On  crossing 
the  river,  the  troops  entered  upon  the  trembling  lands,  which 
are  immense  flats  of  turf,  extending  for  miles  in  every  direction, 
from  six  inches  to  a  foot  in  thickness,  resting  upon  water  and 
beds  of  quicksand.  A  troop,  or  even  a  single  horseman  passing 
over,  produced  an  undulating  and  quivering  motion  of  the  land, 
from  which  it  gets  its  name.  Although  the  surface  is  quite 
dry,  yet  there  is  no  difficulty  in  procuring  plenty  of  water  by 
cutting  an  opening  through  the  stratum  of  turf.  The  horses 
would  sometimes,  on  the  thinner  portions,  force  a  foot  through, 
and  fall  to  the  shoulder  or  ham  ;  yet,  so  great  is  the  tenacity 
of  the  upper  surface,  that  in  no  instance  was  there  any  trouble 
in  getting  them  out.  In  some  places  the  weight  of  the  earth 
forces  a  stream  of  water  upwards,  which  carrying  with  it  and 
depositing  large  quantities  of  sand,  forms  a  mound.  The 
mound,  increasing  in  weight  as  it  enlarges,  increases  the  press- 
ure upon  the  water  below,  presenting  the  novel  sight  of  a  foun- 
tain in  the  prairie  pouring  its  stream  down  the  side  of  a  mound, 
then  to  be  absorbed  by  the  sand  and  returned  to  the  waters  be- 
neath. 

Discovering  no  sign  of  an  enemy  in  this  direction,  the  de- 
tachment fell  back  to  the  Burnt  village,  and  the  bridges  not 
being  yet  completed,  it  was  determined  to  throw  over  a  small 
force  on  rafts  the  next  day.  The  Winnebagoes  had  assured  the 
general  that  the  shore  beyond  was  a  large  island,  and  that  the 
whole  of  Black  Hawk's  forces  were  fortified  on  it.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  information,  Captain  Early's  company  were 
crossed  on  rafts,  followed  and  supported  by  two  companies  of 
regulars,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Noel  of  the  army, 
which  last  were  formed  in  open  order  across  the  island,  while 


134  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Captain  Early  proceeded  to  scour  it,  reporting  afterwards  at 
Head  Quarters  that  he  had  found  the  trail  of  a  large  body  of 
Indians ;  but  Col.  William  S.  Hamilton,  having  crossed  the 
main  river  three  miles  below  with  a  party  of  Menominies,  re- 
ported the  trail  of  the  whole  tribe  on  the  main  west  shore,  about 
ten  flays  old,  proceeding  northward  ;  and  it  was  afterwards  as- 
certained that  no  sign  had  been  seen  upon  the  island  but  that 
of  the  two  Indians  who  had  fired  upon  the  regular  soldiers. 

Eight  weeks  had  now  been  wasted  in  fruitless  search  for  the 
enemy,  and  the  commanding  general  seemed  further  from  the 
attainment  of  his  object  than  when  the  second  requisition  of 
troops  was  organized.  At  that  time  Posey  and  Alexander 
commanded  each  a  thousand  men,  Henry  took  the  field  with 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  the  regular  force  under  Col. 
Taylor,  now  Major  General,  amounted  to  four  hundred  and  fifty 
more.  But  by  this  time  the  volunteer  force  was  reduced  nearly 
one  half.  Many  had  entered  the  service  for  mere  pastime,  and 
a  desire  to  participate  in  the  excellent  fun  of  an  Indian  cam- 
paign, looked  upon  as  a  frolic ;  and  certainly  but  few  volun- 
teered with  well-defined  notions  of  the  fatigues,  delays,  and 
hardships  of  an  Indian  war  in  an  unsettled  and  unknown  country. 
The  tedious  marches,  exposure  to  the  weather,  loss  of  horses, 
sickness,  forced  submission  to  command,  and  disgust  at  the  un- 
expected hardships  and  privations  of  a  soldier's  life,  produced 
rapid  reductions  in  the  numbers  of  every  regiment.  The  great 
distance  from  the  base  of  operations  ;  the  difficulties  of  trans- 
portation either  by  land  or  water,  making  it  impossible  at  any- 
time to  have  more  than  twelve  days'  provisions  beforehand, 
still  further  curtailed  the  power  of  the  commanding  general. 
Such  was  the  wastefulness  of  the  volunteers,  that  they  were 
frequently  one  or  two  days  short  of  provisions  before  new  sup- 
plies could  be  furnished. 

At  this  time  there  were  not  more  than  four  days'  rations  in 


HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS.  135 

the  hands  of  the  commissary,  the  enemy  might  be  weeks  in  ad- 
vance ;  the  volunteers  were  fast  melting  away,  but  the  regular 
infantry  had  not  lost  a  man.     To  counteract  these  difficulties, 
Gen.  Atkinson  found  it  necessary  to  disperse  his  command,  for  % 
the  purpose  of  procuring  supplies. 


CHAPTER    V. 

Gen.  Posey  marches  to  Fort  Hamilton— Generals  Henry  and  Alexander,  and  Major  Dodge, 
to  Fort  Winnebago — Gen.  Atkinson  remained  behind  to  build  a  fort— Description  of 
the  country  and  the  rivers  at  Fort  Winfcebago— Gen.  Henry  informed  as  to  the  posi- 
tion of  Black  Hawk — Council  of  war — Agreement  to  violate  orders  and  march  after 
the  Indians — Alexander's  men  refuse  to  march — Dodge's  horses  broke  down — Arri- 
val of  Craig's  company— Protest  of  officers  and  signs  of  mutiny — Put  down  by  Gen. 
Henry— His  character  as  a  military  man — March  for  Rock  river— Description  of 
Rock.river— March  for  Cranberry  lake— Express  to  Gen.  Atkinson— Discovery  of  the 
retreat  of  Black  Hawk  to  the  Wisconsin — Confession  of  the  Winnebagoes — March 
for  the  Wisconsin— Thunder  storm— Privations  of  the  men — Arrival  at  the  four 
lakes — False  alarm — Description  of  the  four  lakes — Gen.  Ewing  and  the  spies — Maj. 
Dodge— Ardour  of  the  men — Come  close  upon  the  Indians— Battle  of  the  Wisconsin 
heights — Defeat  of  the  Indians — Their  retreat  across  the  river — Reasons  why  Gen. 
Henry  and  the  Illinois  volunteers  never  received  credit  abroad  for  what  they  deserv- 
ed— Gen.  Henry's  death— His  singular  modesty — Return  of  the  troops  to  the  Blue 
mounds— Bad  treatment  of  Henry  and  his  brigade  by  Gen.  Atkinson — Gen.  Atkinson 
pursues  the  Indians  across  the  Wisconsin — Order  of  march — Henry's  men  put  in 
charge  of  the  baggage — They  resent  but  submit — Gen.  Atkinson  in  front  decoyed  by 
the  Indians — Drawn  off  on  a  false  scent — Henry  advances  on  the  main  trail — Comes 
upon  the  main  body  of  the  Indians  and  again  defeats  them  before  Gen.  Atkinson  ar- 
rived with  the  rest  of  the  army — Retreat  of  Black  Hawk  Indians — Sent  in  pursuit  of 
him— The  one-eyed  Decori— Capture  of  Black  Hawk  and  the  Prophet — Description 
of  the  Prophet — Indian  speeches — Gen.  Scott — Discharge  of  the  volunteers — Treaty 
of  peace — Black  Hawk  and  other  prisoners  taken  to  Washington — Makes  the  tour 
of  the  Union,  and  are  returned  to  their  own  country,  west  of  the  Mississippi. 

ACCORDING  to  previous  arrangements,  the  several  brigades 
took  up  their  lines  of  march  on  the  10th  of  July,  for  their  re- 
spective destinations.  Col.  Ewing's  regiment  was  sent  back  to 
Dixon  as  an  escort  for  Captain  Dunn,  who  was  supposed  to  be 
mortally  wounded  ;  Gen.  Posey  marched  to  Fort  Hamilton  on 
the  Peckatonica,  as  a  guard  to  the  frontier  country.  Henry, 
Alexander  and  Dodge,  with  their  commands,  were  sent  to  Fort 
Winnebago,  situate  at  the  Portage,  between  the  Fox  and  the 
Wisconsin  rivers ;  whilst  Gen.  Atkinson  himself,  fell  back  with 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  137 

the  regular  forces  near  to  Lake  Kush-Konong,  and  erected  a  fort, 
which  he  called  by  the  name  of  the  lake.  There  he  was  to  re- 
main until  the  volunteer  generals  could  return  with  supplies. 
Henry  and  Alexander  made  Fort  Winnebago  in  three  days, 
Major  Dodge  having  preceded  them  a  few  hours  by  a  forced 
march,  which  so  fatigued  and  crippled  his  horses,  that  many  of 
them  were  unable  to  continue  the  campaign.  Their  route  had 
been  in  a  direct  line,  a  distance  of  eighty  miles,  through  a  coun- 
try which  was  remarkably  swampy  and  difficult.  On  the  night 
of  the  12th  of  July,  a  stampede  occurred  amongst  the  horses. 
This  is  a  general  wild  alarm,  the  whole  body  of  them  breaking 
loose  from  their  fastenings,  and  coursing  over  the  prairie  at  full 
speed,  their  feet  all  striking  the  ground  with  force  and  sounding 
like  rolling  thunder,  and  by  this  means  an  hundred  or  more  of 
them  were  lost  or  destroyed  in  the  swamps,  or  on  a  log  cause- 
way, three  miles  in  length,  near  the  fort. 

A  view  of  the  country  from  the  camp  at  Fort  Winnebago, 
presented  the  most  striking  contrariety  of  features.  Looking 
towards  the  fort,  a  neat  and  beautiful  erection  among  the  green 
hills  east  of  Fox  river,  were  seen  the  two  streams,  the  Fox  and 
the  Wisconsin,  with  sources  several  hundred  miles  apart,  the 
former  in  the  east,  the  latter  in  the  north,  gliding  as  if  to  mingle 
their  waters,  until,  when  within  three  miles  of  each  other  they 
sweep,  the  one  to  the  northeast,  the  other  to  the  southwest,  as  if 
they  had  met  only  to  take  a  gallant  adieu  before  parting  in 
their  adventurous  journey,  the  one  to  deposite  his  sweet  and 
limpid  waters  in  the  gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  the  other  to  contrib- 
ute his  stained  and  bitter  flood  to  the  gulf  of  Mexico.  The 
course  of  the  Fox  is  short,  crooked,  narrow  and  deep,  and 
abounds  with  the  finest  varieties  of  fish ;  whilst  the  Wisconsin 
is  long,  wide,  and  comparatively  straight,  and  is  said  to  have  no 
fish;  this,  perhaps,  is  owing  to  its  passage  through  the  cypress 
swamps  which  render  it  unwholesome  to  the  finny  tribes,  and 
is  also  the  cause  of  the  discoloration  of  its  waters.  This  river 


138  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

is  shallow,  and  abounds  in  sand -bars,  which,  by  constant  shifting 
renders  its  navigation  by  steamboats,  dangerous,  if  not  impracti- 
cable. Besides  the  rivers,  the  face  of  the  country  is  no  less  re- 
markable. The  strip  of  land  between  the  two  rivers  is  low,  flat, 
and  swampy,  with  no  other  growth  but  a  coarse  variety  of  rush, 
and  at  high-water  so  completely  overflowed  by  the  two  streams  as 
to  convert  all  that  part  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi into  a  great  island  ;  a  wisp  of  straw  being  thrown  into  the 
flood  where  the  two  currents  meet,  will  be  divided,  and  one 
portion  floated  to  the  northern,  the  other  to  the  southern  sea. 
East  of  Fox  river,  the  land  is  gently  undulating,  presenting  an 
equable  distribution  of  prairie  of  the  richest  mould,  and  timber 
of  the  finest  growth,  unobstructed  by  underbrush,  and  furnish- 
ing an  abundance  of  a  plant  called  pea- vine,  an  excellent  food 
for  cattle.  West  of  the  Wisconsin,  at  the  water's  edge,  com- 
mence those  frowning  steps  of  rugged  and  barren  rock,  garnish- 
ed with  black  and  bristling  pines  and  hemlock,  which,  as  the 
hunter  progresses  towards  the  Mississippi,  he  finds  to  terminate 
in  a  region  mountainous,  dreary,  terrific,  and  truly  alpine,  in  all 
its  features. 

Two  days  were  occupied  at  the  fort  in  getting  provisions ;  on 
the  last  of  which  the  Winnebago  chiefs  there  reported  that 
Black  Hawk  and  his  forces  were  encamped  at  the  Manitou  vil- 
lage, thirty-five  miles  above  Gen.  Atkinson,  on  Rock  river.  In 
a  council  held  between  Alexander,  Henry,  and  Dodge,  it  was 
determined  to  violate  orders,  by  marching  directly  to  the  en- 
emy, with  the  hope  of  taking  him  by  surprise ;  or  at  least  put- 
ting him  between  them  and  Gen.  Atkinson ;  thus  cutting  off 
his  further  retreat  to  the  north.  Twelve  o'clock  on  the  15th, 
was  appointed  as  the  hour  to  march.  Gen.  Henry  proceeded 
at  once  to  reorganize  his  brigade,  with  a  view  to  disencumber 
himself  of  his  sick  and  dismounted  men,  that  as  little  as  possi- 
ble might  impede  the  celerity  of  his  march.  Gen.  Alexander 
soon  announced  that  his  men  were  unwilling,  and  had  refused 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  139 

to  follow  ;  and  Major  Dodge  reported  his  horses  so  much  dis- 
abled by  their  late  inarch,  that  he  could  not  muster  a  force 
worth  taking  along.  Gen.  Henry  was  justly  indignant  at  the 
insubordination  and  defection  of  his  companions  in  arms,  and 
announced  his  purpose  to  march  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy  alone, 
if  he  could  prevail  upon  but  fifty  men  to  follow  him.  But 
directly  after  this,  a  company  of  mounted  volunteers,  under  the 
command  of  Capt.  Craig,  from  Apple  river  and  Galena,  in  Illi- 
nois, with  fresh  horses,  arrived  at  Fort  Winnebago  to  join  Major 
Dodge's  battalion,  which  now  made  his  force  of  men  and  horses 
fit  for  service,  one  hundred  and  twenty  in  the  whole.  General 
Henry's  brigade,  exclusive  of  Dodge's  battalion,  amounted  to 
between  five  and  six  hundred  men,  but  not  more  than  four 
hundred  and  fifty  had  horses  fit  for  service.  On  returning  to 
his  own  brigade,  Gen.  Henry  discovered  that  his  own  men, 
infected  by  association  with  those  of  Gen.  Alexander,  were  on 
the  point  of  open  mutiny. 

Lieutenant-colonel  Jeremiah  Smith,  of  Fry's  regiment,  pre- 
sented to  Gen.  Henry  a  written  protest,  signed  by  all  the  offi- 
cers of  the  regiment,  except  the  colonel,  against  the  intended 
expedition ;  but  these  mutineers  had  to  deal  with  an  officer  of 
rare  abilities  as  a  commander  of  militia.  General  Henry  was 
a  complete  soldier  ;  he  was  gifted  with  the  uncommon  talent 
of  commanding  with  sternness,  without  giving  offence ;  of  for- 
cing his  men  to  obey,  without  degrading  them  in  their  own  esti- 
mation ;  he  was  brave  without  rashness,  and  gave  his  orders 
with  firmness  and  authority,  without  any  appearance  of  bluster. 
In  his  mere  person  he  looked  the  commander ;  in  a  word,  he 
was  one  of  those  very  rare  men,  who  are  gifted  by  nature  with 
the  power  to  command  militia ;  to  be  at  the  same  time  feared 
and  loved :  and  with  the  capacity  of  inspiring  the  soldiery  with 
the  ardor,  impetuosity,  and  honorable  impulses  of  their  com- 
mander. General  Henry  made  no  other  reply  to  this  protest 
than  to  order  the  officers  under  arrest  for  mutiny ;  appointing 


140  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

at  the  same  time  Collins'  regiment  as  a  guard,  to  escort  them 
to  Gen.  Atkinson.  Colonel  Smith,  in  great  trepidation,  pro- 
tested that  he  did  not  know  what  the  paper  contained  when  he 
signed  it,  and  implored  the  general's  permission  to  consult  a 
few  moments  with  the  officers  before  further  steps  were  taken. 
This  being  accorded,  in  less  than  ten  minutes  they  were  all  col- 
lected at  the  general's  quarters,  manifesting  the  utmost  contri- 
tion, many  of  them  with  tears,  and  pledging  themselves,  if  for- 
given, to  return  to  their  duty  and  never  be  guilty  of  the  like 
offence  again.  The  general,  than  whom  none  better  understood 
human  nature,  or  had  more  capacity  to  act  on  it,  made  them  a 
few  remarks,  tempered  with  dignity  and  kindness ;  the  officers 
returned  to  their  duty,  and  it  is  but  doing  them  justice  to  say, 
that  from  that  hour,  no  men  ever  behaved  better.  Alexander's 
brigade  marched  back  to  General  Atkinson. 

From  this  place  Gen.  Henry  took  up  his  line  of  march  on 
the  15th  of  July,  accompanied  by  Poquette,  a  half-breed,  and 
the  "  White  Pawnee,"  a  Winnebago  chief,  as  guides,  in  quest 
of  the  Indians.  On  the  route  to  the  head  waters  of  Rock  river 
he  was  frequently  thrown  from  a  direct  line  by  intervening 
swamps  extending  for  miles.  Many  of  them  were  crossed,  but 
never  without  difficulty  and  the  loss  of  horses.  After  three 
days'  hard  marching,  his  forces  encamped  upon  the  beautiful 
stream  of  Rock  river.  This  river  is  not  exceeded  by  any 
other  in  natural  beauty.  Its  waters  are  clear ;  its  bottom  and 
banks  rocky  or  pebbly.  The  country  on  each  side  is  either 
rolling,  rich  prairie,  or  hills  crowned  with  forests  free  from  un- 
dergrowth, and  its  current  sweeps  to  the  Mississippi,  deep  and 
bold.  Here  three  Winnebagoes  gave  intelligence  that  Black 
Hawk  was  encamped  at  Cranberry  lake,  further  up  the  river. 
Relying  upon  this  information,  it  was  settled  by  Gen.  Henry 
to  make  a  forced  march  in  that  direction  the  next  morning. 
Doctor  Merryman  of  Springfield,  and  W.  W.  Woodbridge  of 
Wisconsin,  were  despatched  as  expresses  to  Gen.  Atkinson. 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  141 

They  were  accompanied  by  a  chief  called  Little  Thunder,  as 
guide  ;  and  having  started  about  dark,  and  proceeded  on  their 
perilous  route  about  eight  miles  to  the  south-west,  they  came 
upon  the  fresh  main  trail  of  the  enemy,  endeavoring  to  escape 
by  way  of  the  Four  Lakes  across  the  Wisconsin  river.  At  the 
sight  of  the  trail,  the  Indian  guide  was  struck  with  terror,  and, 
without  permission,  retreated  back  to  the  camp.  Merriman 
and  Woobbridge  returned  also,  but  not  until  Little  Thunder 
had  announced  his  discovery  in  the  Indian  tongue  to  his  coun- 
trymen, who  were  in  the  very  act  of  making  their  escape  when 
they  were  stopped  by  Major  Murray  M'Connell,  and  taken  to 
the  tent  of  Gen.  Henry,  to  whom  they  confessed  that  they  had 
come  into  camp  only  to  give  false  information,  and  favor  the 
retreat  of  the  Indians  ;  and  then,  to  make  amends  for  their  per- 
fidy, and  perhaps,  as  they  were  led  to  believe,  to  avoid  imme- 
diate death,  they  disclosed  all  they  knew  of  Black  Hawk's 
movements.  Gen.  Henry  prudently  kept  the  treachery  of 
these  Indians  a  secret  from  his  men,  for  it  would  have  taken  all 
his  influence  and  that  of  all  his  officers  to  save  their  lives,  if 
their  perfidious  conduct  had  been  known  throughout  the  camp. 
The  next  morning  (July  19th)  by  daylight,  everything  was 
ready  for  a  forced  march,  but  first  another  express  was  despatch- 
ed to  Gen.  Atkinson.  All  cumbrous  baggage  was  thrown  away. 
The  tents  and  most  of  the  camp  equipage  were  left  in  a  pile  in 
the  wilderness.  Many  of  the  men  left  their  blankets  and  all 
their  clothes,  except  the  suit  they  wore,  and  this  was  the  case 
in  every  instance  with  those  who  had  been  so  unfortunate  as  to 
lose  their  horses,  such  as  these  took  their  guns,  ammunition, 
and  provisions  upon  their  backs,  and  travelled  over  mountain 
and  plain,  through  swamp  and  thicket,  and  kept  up  with  the 
men  on  horseback.  All  the  men  now  marched  with  a  better 
spirit  than  usual.  The  sight  of  the  broad,  fresh  trail,  inspired 
every  one  with  a  lively  hope  of  bringing  the  war  to  a  speedy 
end ;  and  even  the  horses  seemed  to  share  somewhat  in  the 


142  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

general  ardor.  There  was  no  murmuring,  there  was  no  excuse 
or  complaining,  and  none  on  the  sick  report.  The  first  day,  in 
the  afternoon,  they  were  overtaken  by  one  of  those  storms 
common  on  the  prairies,  black  and  terrific,  accompanied  by 
torrents  of  rain,  and  the  most  fearful  lightning  and  thunder ; 
but  the  men  dashed  on  through  thickets  almost  impenetrable, 
and  swamps  almost  impassable,  and  that  day  marched  upwards 
of  fifty  miles.  During  this  day's  march,  Gen.  Henry,  Major 
M'Connell,  and  others  of  the  General's  staff,  often  dismounted 
and  marched  on  foot,  giving  their  horses  to  the  footmen. 

That  night,  the  storm  raged  till  two  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
The  men,  exhausted  with  fatigue,  threw  themselves  supperless 
upon  the  muddy  earth,  covered  with  water,  for  a  little  rest. 
The  rain  made  it  impossible  to  kindle  a  fire  or  to  cook,  so 
that  both  officers  and  men  contented  themselves  with  eating 
some  raw  meat  and  some  of  the  wet  flour  which  they  carried 
in  their  sacks,  and  which  was  converted  into  a  soft  dough  by 
the  drenching  rains.  A  similar  repast  served  them  next 
morning  for  breakfast.  The  horses  had  fared  but  little  better 
than  the  men.  The  government  furnished  nothing  for  them 
to  eat,  and  they  were  obliged  to  subsist  that  night  upon  a 
scanty  grazing,  confined  within  the  limits  of  the  camp. 

Next  morning  (July  20),  the  storm  had  abated,  and  all  were 
on  the  march  'by  daylight,  and  after  a  march  as  hard  as  that 
on  the  day  before,  the  army  encamped  at  night  upon  the 
banks  of  one  of  the  four  lakes  forming  the  source  of  the 
Catfish  river  in  Wisconsin,  and  near  the  place  where  the  In- 
dians had  encamped  the  previous  night.  At  this  place  the  men 
were  able  to  make  fires  and  cook  their  suppers,  and  this  they 
did  with  a  hearty  good  will,  having  travelled  about  one  hun- 
dred miles  without  tasting  anything  but  raw  food,  and  without 
having  seen  a  spark  of  fire.  That  night  they  again  laid  upon  the 
ground,  many  of  them  with  nothing  but  the  sky  for  a  covering, 
and  slept  soundly  and  sweetly,  like  men  upon  their  beds  at 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  143 

home.  All  were  in  fine  spirits  and  high  expectation  of  over- 
taking the  Indians  next  day,  and  putting  an  end  to  the  war  by 
a  general  battle.  The  night  did  not  pass,  however,  without  an 
alarm.  One  of  the  sentinels  posted  near  the  bank  of  the  lake, 
fired  upon  an  Indian  gliding  in  his  canoe  slyly  and  stealthily  to 
the  shore.  Every  man  was  aroused  and  under  arms  in  an  in- 
stant, but  nothing  followed  to  continue  the  alarm.  A  small 
black  speck  could  be  seen  by  aid  of  the  star-light  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  lake,  but  no  enemy  was  visible. 

The  march  was  continued  by  early  light  in  the  morning,  (July 
21,)  with  unabated  ardor  ;  passing  round  the  lake  on  the  edge 
of  the  water ;  and  after  crossing  a  tongue  of  land  running 
down  between  two  of  the  lakes,  the  army  forded  a  considerable 
stream,  the  outlet  of  one  lake  running  into  another.  After 
this,  they  ascended  a  rising  ground  from  whence  could  be  seen, 
at  one  view,  three  of  these  beautiful  sheets  of  water.  The 
lakes  and  the  surrounding  country  of  sloping  prairies  and  wood- 
ed hills  stretching  away  in  the  distance,  presented  some  very 
striking  and  beautiful  scenery.  The  hand  of  civilization  had 
not  then  disfigured  its  natural  beauty.  The  smoke  of  the  log 
cabin  and  the  ragged  worm  fence  were  not  then  to  be  seen. 
All  was  wild  and  silent  save  the  distant  roar  of  surging  waters 
lashed  into  motion  by  the  constant,  but  ever-varying  winds. 
The  men,  however,  had  but  little  time  to  contemplate  the  beauty 
of  the  scenery  around  them.  They  were  hurried  forward  by 
the  continual  cry  of  "  Close  up  your  ranks,"  as  the  officers, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  direct  and  accelerate  the  march,  rode 
along  the  lines,  admonishing  them  to  keep  up  with  the  advanced 
guard.  This  day's  march  was  still  harder  than  any  which  pre- 
ceded it.  The  men  on  foot  were  forced  into  a  run  to  keep  up 
with  the  advancing  horsemen.  The  men  on  horseback  carried 
their  arms  and  baggage  for  them  by  turns. 

Major  William  Lee  D.  EwSng  (since  a  Major  General)  com- 
manded the  spy  battalion,  and  with  him  was  joined  the  battalion 


144  HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS. 

of  Major  Dodge,  of  Wisconsin.  These  two  officers,  with  their 
commands,  were  in  the  advance  ;  but  with  all  their  ardor  they 
were  never  able  to  get  out  of  sight  of  the  main  body.  Geii. 
Henry,  who  remained  with  the  main  body,  despatched  Major 
M'Connell  with  the  advance  guard,  so  as  to  get  the  earliest 
intelligence  of  any  unusual  occurrence  in  front.  About  noon 
of  this  day,  the  advance  guard  was  close  upon  the  rear-guard  of 
the  retreating  enemy.  It  is  to  be  regretted  "that  we  have  no 
account  of  the  management,  the  perils,  and  hair-breadth  escapes 
of  the  Indians  in  conducting  their  retreat.  All  that  we  know 
is,  that  for  many  miles  before  they  were  overtaken  their  broad 
trail  was  strewn  with  camp  kettles  and  baggage  of  various  kinds, 
which  they  had  thrown  away  in  the  hurry  of  their  flight.  The 
sight  of  these  articles  encouraged  Henry's  men  to  press  for- 
ward, hoping  soon  to  put  an  end  to  this  vexatious  border  war 
which  had  so  much  disturbed  the  peace  of  our  northern  frontier 
settlements.  About  noon,  also,  the  scouts  ahead  came  sud- 
denly upon  two  Indians,  and  as  they  were  attempting  to  escape 
one  of  them  was  killed  and  left  dead  on  the  field.  Doctor 
Addison  Philleo  coming  along  shortly  after,  scalped  this  Indian, 
and  for  a  long  time  afterwards  exhibited  the  scalp  as  an  evi- 
dence of  his  valor.  Shortly  after  this,  the  rear  guard  of  the 
Indians  began  to  make  feint  stands,  as  if  to  bring  on  a  battle. 
In  doing  so,  their  design  was  merely  to  gain  time  for  the  main 
body  to  reach  a  more  advantageous  position.  A  few  shots 
would  be  exchanged,  and  the  Indians  would  then  push  ahead, 
whilst  the  pursuing  force  would  halt  to  form  in  the  order  of 
battle.  In  this  way  the  Indians  were  able  to  reach  the  broken 
grounds  on  the  bluffs  of  the  Wisconsin  river,  by  four  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  before  they  were  overtaken. 

About  this  time,  whilst  the  advanced  guard  was  passing  over 
some  uneven  ground,  through  the  high  grass  and  low  timber, 
they  were  suddenly  fired  upon  by  a  body  of  Indians  who  had 
here  secreted  themselves.  In  an  instant  Major  Ewing's  battal- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  145 

ion  dismounted  and  were  formed  in  front,  their  horses  being 
removed  into  the  rear.  The  Indians  kept  up  a  fire  from  behind 
fallen  trees,  and  none  of  them  could  be  discovered  except  by 
the  flash  and  report  of  their  guns.  In  a  few  minutes  Gen. 
Henry  arrived  with  the  main  body.  The  order  of  battle  was 
now  formed.  Col.  Jones'  regiment  was  placed  on  the  right, 
Col  Collins'  on  the  left,  and  Col.  Fry's  in  the  rear,  to  act  as  a 
reserve.  Major  Ewing's  battalion  was  placed  in  front  of  the 
line,  and  Major  Dodge's  on  the  extreme  right.  In  this  order 
Gen.  Henry's  forces  marched  into  battle.  An  order  was  given 
to  charge  upon  the  enemy,  which  was  handsomely  obeyed  by 
Ewing's  battalion  and  by  Jones'  and  Collins'  regiments. 

The  Indians  retreated  before  this  charge  obliquely  to  the 
right,  and  concentrated  their  main  force  in  front  of  Dodge's 
battalion,  showing  a  design  to  turn  his  flank.  General  Henry 
sent  an  order  by  Major  M'Connell  to  Major  Dodge,  to  advance 
to  the  charge ;  but  this  officer  being  of  opinion  that  the  foe  was 
too  strong  for  him,  requested  a  reinforcement.  Col.  Fry's 
regiment  was  ordered  to  his  aid,  and  formed  on  his  right.  And 
now  a  vigorous  charge  was  made  from  one  end  of  the  line  to 
the  other. 

Colonel  Fry's  regiment  made  a  charge  into  the  bush  and  high 
grass  where  the  Indians  were  concealed,  and  received  the  fire 
of  their  whole  body.  This  fire  was  briskly  returned  by  Fry 
and  Dodge  and  their  men,  who  continued  to  advance,  the  In- 
dians standing  their  ground  until  the  men  came  within  bayonet 
reach  of  them,  then  fell  back  to  the  west,  along  the  high  broken 
bluffs  of  the  Wisconsin,  only  to  take  a  new  position  amongst 
the  thickest  timber  and  tall  grass  in  the  head  of  a  hollow,  lead- 
ing to  the  Wisconsin  river  bottom.  Here  it  seemed,  they  were 
determined  to  make  a  firm  stand ;  but  being  charged  upon  in 
their  new  position,  by  Ewing's  battalion,  and  by  Collins'  and 
Jones'  regiments,  they  were  driven  out  of  it,  some  of  them 
being  pursued  down  the  hollow,  and  others  again  to  the  west, 

7 


14:6  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

along  the  Wisconsin  heights,  until  they  descended  the  bluffs  to 
the  Wisconsin  bottom,  which  was  here  about  a  mile  wide  and 
very  swampy,  covered  with  thick  tall  grass,  above  the  heads 
of  men  on  horseback.  It  being  now  dark  night,  further  pursuit 
was  stopped,  and  Gen.  Henry  and  his  forces  lay  upon  the  field 
of  battle.  That  night,  Henry's  camp  was  disturbed  by  the 
voice  of  an  Indian,  loudly  sounding  from  a  distant  hill,  as  if 
giving  orders  or  desiring  a  conference.  It  afterwards  appeared 
that  this  was  the  voice  of  an  Indian  chief,  speaking  in  the  Win- 
nebago  language,  stating  that  the  Indians  had  their  squaws  and 
families  with  them,  that  they  were  starving  for  provisions,  and 
were  not  able  to  fight  the  white  people ;  and  that  if  they  were 
permitted  to  pass  peaceably  over  the  Mississippi,  they  would 
do  no  more  mischief.  He  spoke  this  in  the  Winnebago  tongue, 
in  hopes  that  some  of  that  people  were  with  Gen.  Henry,  and 
would  act  as  his  interpreter.  No  Winnebagoes  were  present, 
they  having  run  at  the  commencement  of  the  action ;  and  so 
his  language  was  never  explained  until  after  the  close  of  the  war. 

Next  morning  early,  Gen.  Henry  advanced  to  the  Wisconsin 
river,  and  ascertained  that  the  Indians  had  all  crossed  it,  and 
made  their  escape  into  the  mountains  between  that  and  the 
Mississippi.  It  was  ascertained  after  the  battle,  that  the  Indian 
loss  amounted  to  sixty-eight  left  dead  on  the  field,  and  a  large 
number  of  wounded,  of  whom  twenty-five  were  afterwards  found 
dead  along  the  Indian  trail  leading  to  the  Mississippi.  General 
Henry  lost  one  man  killed  and  eight  wounded.  It  appeared 
that  the  Indians,  knowing  that  they  were  to  fight  a  mounted 
force,  had  been  trained  to  fire  at  an  elevation  to  hit  men  on 
horseback ;  but  as  Gen.  Henry  had  dismounted  his  forces,  and 
sent  his  horses  into  the  rear,  the  Indians  overshot  them ;  and 
this  will  account  for  the  very  few  men  killed  and  wounded  by 
them. 

We  have  now  to  account  for  the  fact  that  Gen.  Henry  never 
received  abroad  the  credit  which  was  due  him  as  the  com- 


HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS.  147 

mander,  in  this  battle,  or  in  any  other  during  the  war.  In  the 
morning  after  the  battle,  Col.  Fry  heard  Major  Dodge  and  Dr. 
Philleo  consulting  privately  about  writing  an  account  of  it  to 
be  published.  He  immediately  conveyed  this  intelligence  to 
Gen.  Henry,  suggesting  that  Dodge  would  claim  all  the  credit, 
and  advising  Gen.  Henry,  as  the  only  means  of  securing  his 
rightful  claim,  to  send  an  express  immediately  to  Galena,  with 
his  own  account  of  the  battle.  This  prudent  advice  Henry 
neglected. 

Doctor  Philleo  was  the  editor  of  a  newspaper  at  Galena, 
called  "  the  Galenian,"  then  the  only  newspaper  published  north 
of  Springfield,  either  in  Illinois  or  Wisconsin.  The  war  news 
always  appeared  first  in  this  paper.  The  editor  belonged  to 
Dodge's  battalion,  and  when  he  wrote  home  the  news  to  be 
published  in  his  paper,  he  never  mentioned  Henry,  except  as  a 
subordinate,  or  any  other  officer  but  Dodge.  His  letters  chron- 
icled the  doings  of  Gen.  Dodge  only,  and  by  calling  him  Gen- 
eral Dodge,  it  was  made  to  appear  that  he  was  the  commander 
of  the  whole  brigade,  instead  of  a  single  battalion  attached  to  it. 
These  letters  were  copied  into  all  other  newspapers  throughout 
the  United  States,  as  the  authentic  news  of  the  war ;  and  never 
having  been  contradicted,  the  people  abroad  were  thus  deluded 
into  the  belief  that  Dodge  was  the  great  hero  of  the  war. 
Henry  was  lost  sight  of;  and  now,  in  many  histories,  we  find 
it  asserted  that  Dodge  was  the  commander  in  this  war ;  thus 
throwing  out  of  sight  both  Generals  Henry  and  Atkinson,  as 
well  as  General  Zachary  Taylor,  who,  as  colonel,  commanded 
the  regular  force.  The  world  loves  to  be  humbugged.  This 
delusion  was  of  immense  advantage  to  Gen.  Dodge;  for  al- 
though he  was  a  man  of  very  high  merit,  yet  would  he  have 
been  more  fortunate  than  thousands  of  others  equally  meritori- 
ous, if  this  delusion  did  not  assist  much  in  getting  the  great 
name  he  afterwards  obtained.  He  was  first  appointed  a  colo- 
nel of  dragoons ;  then  to  be  governor  of  Wisconsin  territory ; 


148  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

then  he  was  elected  a  delegate  from  the  territory  to  Congress ; 
and  after  this  he  was  again  appointed  governor  of  the  territory. 
And  it  is  but  just  to  say  of  him,  that  independently  of  the  re- 
nown he  acquired  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  he  enjoyed  great 
popularity  and  influence.* 

*  DODGEVILLE,  March  17th,  1847. 
HON.  THOMAS  FORD, — 

SIR, — The  enclosed  paragraph  taken  from  the  "  Milwakee  Senti- 
nel and  Gazette,"  of  the  17th  ult.,  purports  to  have  been  a  lecture  read 
by  you  in  the  Senate  chamber,  during  the  late  session  of  the  Illinois 
legislature,  giving  the  "  true  history  of  the  Black  Hawk  war."  Will 
you  please  inform  me  at  your  earliest  convenience,  if  you  made  the 
statements  attributed  to  you  in  the  paragraph  in  question  ? 

Respectfully,  your  servant, 

HENRY  DODGE. 

VERSAILLES,  BROWN  COUNTY,  ILLINOIS,  ) 
April  13,  1847.      j 

SIR, — After  an  absence  of  two  weeks,  on  my  return  to  this  place,  I 
had  the  honor  to  receive  your  note  of  the  7th  ult.,  which  was  forward- 
ed to  me  from  Springfield.  The  extract  cut  from  the  Wisconsin  paper, 
endorsed  in  your  letter,  does  not  contain  a  correct  account  of  my  lec- 
ture on  the  Black  Hawk  war.  It  is  erroneous  in  many  important  par- 
ticulars. That  lecture  was  prepared  from  my  own  personal  knowledge 
of  the  campaign  in  1831 ;  and  from  information  of  the  various  opera- 
tions in  1832,  from  various  persons ;  more  particularly  from  Maj.  Gen. 
Jacob  Fry,  of  Lockport ;  Maj.  Murray  McConnell,  of  Jacksonville ;  Dr. 
E.  H.  Merriman,  of  Springfield ;  Maj.  Gen.  Wm.  Lee  D.  Ewing,  late  of 
Springfield,  and  the  Hon.  John  J.  Stewart,  late  a  member  of  Congress. 
Gen.  Fry  commanded  a  regiment  under  Gen.  Henry ;  Gen.  Ewing  com- 
manded the  spy  battalion  of  Henry's  brigade;  Maj.  McConnell  was 
brigade-major  of  Henry's  brigade;  Dr.  Merriman  was  adjutant  of  Col- 
lins' regiment  in  Henry's  brigade ;  and  Mr.  Stewart  commanded  a  bat- 
talion in  it.  I  have  not  had  an  opportunity  to  see  and  converse  with 
Cols.  Collins  and  Jones,  who  commanded  the  other  two  regiments  be- 
longing to  Henry's  command  in  the  battle  of  the  Wisconsin.  But  Gen. 
Fry,  Gen.  Ewing  and  Maj.  McConnell,  were  with  Gen.  Henry  through- 
out the  war.  In  collecting  the  facts  and  writing  out  the  history  of  this 
war,  my  only  object  has  been  to  arrive  at,  and  state  the  truth  ;  for  his- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  149 

General  Henry's  subsequent  career  was  less  brilliant,  but 
this  was  because  it  was  cut  short  by  death.  Although  he  was 
a  man  of  very  powerful  and  muscular  make,  not  long  after  the 
war  he  was  attacked  with  the  consumption.  He  went  to  the 
South  for  his  health,  and  died  at  New  Orleans  on  the  4th  day 

tory  without  truth,  is  of  but  little  value.  I  concluded,  therefore,  be- 
fore publishing  anything  on  the  subject,  I  would  deliver  this  portion 
of  the  history  of  Illinois  as  a  lecture,  at  Springfield,  during  the  session 
of  the  legislature,  there  being  then  many  persons  present,  who  had 
been  out  in  the  war,  and  who  might  be  able  to  correct  me  when  I-might 
be  in  error.  Such  corrections  were  invited ;  and  accordingly  I  have 
received  many,  of  which  I  have  freely  availed  myself  since. 

It  is  my  intention  to  publish  a  history  of  Illinois  in  the  course  of  the 
summer,  but  as  yet  I  have  neither  directly  nor  indirectly  authorized  any 
of  the  newspaper  notices  of  it  made  last  winter ;  nor  have  I  given  any 
sort  of  publicity  to  the  matter  more  than  a  lecture  can  give.  In  the  mean- 
time, I  will  be  glad  to  avail  myself  of  any  information  which  you  may 
have  it  in  your  power  to  communicate ;  and  if  I  cannot,  consistently 
•with  other  evidence,  follow  your  statements  implicitly,  they  will  be 
published  entire,  if  not  too  voluminous. 

According  to  my  present  information  I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to 
insist  that  Gen.  Henry  was  the  principal  man  in  this  war ;  that  he  com- 
manded and  directed  all  the  movements  of  the  troops  from  Fort  Winne- 
bago  to  Rock  river,  and  from  thence  to  the  Wisconsin,  and  throughout 
the  battle  which  there  ensued ;  that  he  commanded  a  brigade  of  three 
regiments  and  a  spy  battalion  ;  and  that  you  commanded  but  a  single 
battalion  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  men.  I  have  stated  that  on  the 
march,  your  command,  and  the  spies  commanded  by  the  late  Gen.  Ew- 
ing,  were  in  front  as  the  advance  guard ;  that  in  the  battle  you  was 
stationed  on  the  extreme  right,  but  when  a  charge  of  the  whole  line 
was  ordered  by  Gen.  Henry,  the  Indians  collected  on  the  right  in  front 
of  your  battalion,  showing  a  design  to  turn  your  flank,  which  caused 
Gen.  Henry  to  order  Col.  Fry's  regiment  to  form  on  your  right;  which 
being  done,  you  and  Gen.  Fry  charged  upon  and  drove  the  Indians  into 
the  head  of  a  hollow  leading  down  from  the  bluffs  of  the  Wisconsin,  and 
from  thence,  upon  the  charge  of  the  whole  brigade  they  were  routed,  and 
fled  down  the  bluffs  and  across  the  bottom  to  the  Wisconsin  river. 
Gen.  Fry  and  Maj.  McConnell  say,  that  your  battalion  did  not  come 


150  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

of  March,  1834.  Such  was  the  amiable  modesty  and  unpre- 
tending merit  of  this  man,  that  he  never  let  it  be  known  to  the 
strangers  among  whom  he  resided,  in  his  last  sickness,  that  he 
was  Gen.  Henry  of  the  Black  Hawk  war.  This  fact  was  dis- 
covered to  them  only  after  his  death.  He  left  no  family  to  in- 

into  the  action  until  re-enforced  by  Fry's  regiment.  Maj.  McConnell 
says  that  he  bore  the  order  from  Gen.  Henry  to  you  to  charge  on  the 
Indians,  but  that  you  thought  you  was  not  strong  enough.  He  return- 
ed with  this  answer  to  Gen.  Henry,  and  then  Henry  sent  Fry  to  re-en- 
force you.  Gen.  Fry  says,  that  when  the  Indians  first  began  the  attack 
you  was  in  advance  with  Gen.  Ewing's  battalion,  and  that  you  and 
your  battalion  immediately  fell  back  into  line.  This  last  fact,  I  see 
that  I  omitted  to  state  in  my  lecture.  I  have  also  been  informed  that 
you  would  not  agree  to  march  from  Fort  Winnebago  in  pursuit  of  the 
Indians,  thereby  disobeying  the  orders  of  Gen.  Atkinson,  without  a 
written  order  from  Gen.  Henry.  This,  also,  I  see  I  have  omitted  in  my 
lecture.  I  see  upon  examination,  that  I  said  nothing  whatever  about 
written  orders. 

I  have  also  stated  that  when  Gen.  Atkinson  pursued  the  Indians 
across  the  "Wisconsin,  your  battalion  was  put  in  advance  with  the  reg- 
ulars; and  that  Gen.  Henry's  brigade  was  put  in  the  rear  with  the  bag- 
gage, by  way  of  degrading  him  and  his  men,  as  they  understood  the 
matter ;  that  when  Atkinson's  advance  reached  within  four  or  five 
miles  of  the  Mississippi,  it  was  fired  on  by  about  twenty  Indians ;  that 
he  pursued  them  with  all  his  forces,  (yours  included,)  except  Henry's 
brigade,  to  a  place  on  the  river,  about  two  or  three  miles  above  the  en- 
campment of  the  main  body  of  Indians ;  that  Henry  coming  up  in  the 
rear,  and  as  yet  being  without  orders,  pursued  the  main  trail  of  the  In- 
dians directly  to  the  river,  where  his  brigade  was  the  first  to  attack 
their  main  body,  and  had  killed  or  driven  the  principal  part  of  them 
into  the  river,  or  over  a  slough  on  to  a  little  willow  island,  before  Gen. 
Atkinson  came  up  with  his  forces,  including  your  battalion.  These  are 
the  principal  matters  stated  by  me,  so  far  as  you  and  Gen.  Henry  are 
concerned. 

I  have  been  informed  by  Gen.  Fry,  that  directly  after  the  battle  of 
the  Wisconsin,  he  heard  you  and  Dr.  Philleo,  talking  about  writing  out 
and  sending  away  an  account  of  the  battle ;  that  he  mentioned  the  cir- 
cumstance to  Gen.  Henry,  and  urged  Henry  immediately  to  write  out 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  151 

herit  his  honors  and  vindicate  his  fame.  After  his  death,  the 
selfishness  of  the  many  suffered  the  matter  to  rest.  No  one 
felt  interested  to  vindicate  the  rights  of  the  dead  against  the 
false  claims  of  the  living.  If  I  had  not  undertaken  to  write 
this  history,  I  am  certain  that  I  never  should  have  thought  of 

his  report,  and  send  it  to  Galena  by  express  to  be  published,  as  the  only 
mode  of  securing  the  credit  due  to  himself ;  but  Henry  neglected  to  do 
so.  This  I  have  stated.  I  am  informed  also,  by  Fry,  Merriman,  Mc- 
Connell  and  Stuart,  that  you  did  write  a  letter  to  Gen.  Street,  or  some 
other  person,  giving  an  account  of  the  battle,  in  -which  you  said  nothing 
of  Gen.  Henry.  But  as  I  do  not  remember  seeing  the  letter,  I  have  not 
attempted  to  speak  of  its  contents.  It  is  said  that  this  letter  was  pub- 
lished in  the  St.  Louis  papers,  and  from  them  was  extensively  copied 
throughout  the  Union,  I  have  made  no  search  as  yet  in  St.  Louis  for  it, 
and  do  not  intend  to  speak  of  its  contents  unless  I  can  find  it ;  and  then 
they  will  be  stated  correctly. 

I  do  not  personally  know  that  Doctor  Philleo  -was  with  you  in  this 
campaign  ;  but  during  the  war  I  was  a  reader  of  the  "  Galenian"  news- 
paper of  which  he  was  editor.  It  contained  many  letters  from  the  Doc- 
tor giving  accounts  of  your  operations,  and  saying  but  little  of  other 
officers.  I  remember,  also,  that  these  letters  in  the  "  Galenian"  were 
extensively  republished  in  other  papers,  from  which  I  have  inferred 
that  this  is  the  true  cause  why  Gen.  Henry  and  the  Illinois  volunteers 
have  never  received  credit  abroad  for  what  they  deserved  in  this  war. 

It  is  not  true  that  I  stated  you  were  first  brought  into  notice  by  this 
war,  as  is  asserted  in  the  Wisconsin  paper;  or  that  honors  and  offices 
were  showered  upon  you  and  your  family  in  consequence  of  your  re- 
nown acquired  in  this  war.  But  it  is  true  that  I  have  traced  the  par- 
allel between  your  good  fortune  and  that  of  Gen.  Henry,  and  I  stated 
expressly  in  my  lecture  that  independently  of  the  renown  which  you 
acquired  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  you  have  enjoyed  great  popularity 
and  influence. 

It  has  been  stated  to  me  that  after  the  war  you  endeavored  to  get 
Doctor  Philleo  the  appointment  of  surgeon  in  the  army,  but  that  he 
could  not  pass  an  examination  before  the  Medical  Board.  Will  you 
allow  me  to  ask  you  how  is  this  ? 

Doctor  Merriman  has  informed  me  in  writing,  that  when  Henry,  Alex- 
ander, and  yourself,  were  sent  to  Fort  Winnebago  fot  supplies,  you  pre- 


152  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

doing  it.  And  now  whilst  I  attempt  it,  I  wish  to  do  General 
Dodge  no  injustice.  That  he  is  a  brave,  meritorious  officer,  I 
make  no  doubt ;  and  in  this  history  I  have  cheerfully  given  him 
all  the  credit  he  is  entitled  to.  But  /  deny  most  positively  that 
he  was  the  principal  man,  either  in  rank  or.  merit,  in  the  Black 

ceded  the  others  a  few  hours  by  a  forced  march,  by  which  most  of  your 
horses  were  disabled ;  that  after  agreeing  to  march  with  Henry  in  pur- 
suit of  the  Indians,  and  after  Alexander's  brigade  had  mutinied  and 
refused  to  march,  you  reported  to  Gen.  Henry  that  you  could  raise  no 
more  than  forty  horses ;  that  Henry  insisted  that  you  should  go  even 
with  that  number ;  that  you  replied  you  would  see  what  you  could  do ; 
and  just  at  that  time  some  fresh  horsemen  came  up,  making  your  com- 
mand, which  you  took  along,  one  hundred  and  twenty  effective  men. 
I  would  be  pleased  to  have  your  statement  concerning  this. 

I  have  noticed  in  the  most  flattering  manner  your  engagement,  or 
rather  charge  upon  the  Indians  at  Peckatonica.  A  short  statement  of 
this  affair  will  be  thankfully  received. 

The  Illinois  volunteers,  when  they  returned  from  the  war,  unani- 
mously gave  Gen.  Henry  the  credit  of  being  the  principal  man  in  it, 
and  such  has  been  the  current  and  universal  belief  in  this  State  ever 
since — now  nearly  fifteen  years.  This  has  undoubtedly  had  its  influ- 
ence on  my  mind,  and  as  yet  I  perceive  no  good  reason  why  it  ought 
not  to  have  an  influence.  Be  pleased  to  direct  your  future  correspon- 
dence to  Peoria,  to  which  place  I  intend  to  remove  my  family  in  a  few 
days. 

I  am,  most  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

THOMAS  FORD. 
His  EXCELLENCY  HENRY  DODGE,  ) 
Dodgeville,  Wisconsin.         f 

I  regret  exceedingly  that  after  waiting  about  five  months,  nothing 
has  been  received  from  Gov.  Dodge  in  answer  to  the  foregoing  letter. 
From  the  evidence  before  me,  I  have  been  conscientiously  of  opinion 
that  Gov.  Dodge  was  not,  and  that  Gen.  Henry  was,  entitled  to  the 
credit  of  being  the  hero  of  the  Black  H.awk  war ;  that  Dodge,  whether 
designedly  or  not  on  his  part,  has  been  for  the  last  fifteen  years  wear- 
ing the  laurels  due  to  Henry  ;  and  I  have  endeavored  to  set  forth  that 
opinion  with  manly  independence.  If,  however,  Gen.  Dodge,  after 


HISTORY-  OF   ILLINOIS.  153 

.  Hawk  war.  In  doing  so,  I  have  no  motive  but  a  generous  one. 
It  is  simply  to  do  justice  to  the  memory  of  the  great  and  meri 
torious  dead — to  the  memory  of  him  who,  being  removed  from 
the  scene  of  action,  has  no  further  power  to  do  me  either  good 
or  harm.  And  in  doing  so,  I  may  be  fortunate  not  to  expose 
myself  to  the  enmity  of  the  powerful  living,  who  can  do  me 
both  or  either. 

In  Illinois,  General  Henry's  merits  have  been  always  duly 
appreciated.  He  was  the  idol  of  the  volunteers  and  the  people, 

commencing  a  correspondence  on  the  subject,  had  seen  proper  to  con- 
tinue it  in  answer  to  the  foregoing  letter,  and  had  communicated  any 
facts  calculated  to  weaken  the  force  of  that  opinion,  he  should  have  had 
the  full  benefit  of  his  communications. 

Since  writing  the  foregoing,  I  have  found  the  following  in  Files' 
Register  of  the  18th  August,  1832 :  "  INDIAN  WAR.  We  have  received 
the  '  Missouri  Republican'  extra  of  the  1st  instant,  confirming  the  in- 
telligence published  in  our  paper  of  Thursday  of  the  defeat  of  the  In- 
dians by  General  Dodge  at  the  Wisconsin.  The  following  letter  from 
General  Dodge  gives  a  hope  that  the  remnant  of  the  Indians  may  be 
overtaken : 

"CAMP  WISCONSIN,  July  22,  1832. 

"  We  met  the  enemy  yesterday  near  the  Wisconsin  river,  and  oppo- 
site the  old  Sack  village,  after  a  close  pursuit  for  near  a  hundred  miles. 
Our  loss  was  one  man  killed  and  eight  wounded.  From  the  scalps  taken 
by  the  Winnebagoes  as  well  as  those  taken  by  the  whites,  and  the  In- 
dians carried  from  the  field  of  battle,  we  have  killed  forty  of  them. 
The  number  of  wounded  is  not  known.  We  can  only  judge  from  the 
number  of  killed,  that  many  were  wounded.  From  their  crippled  sit- 
uation, /  think  we  must  overtake  them,  unless  they  descend  the  Wis- 
consin by  water.  If  yoa  could  place  a  field-piece  immediately  on  the 
Wisconsin  that  would  command  the  river,  you  might  prevent  their 
escape  by  water.  Gen.  Atkinson  will  arrive  at  the  Blue  Mounds  on 
the  24th,  with  the  regulars  and  a  brigade  of  mounted  men.  7  will 
cross  the  Wisconsin  to-morrow,  and  should  the  enemy  retreat  by  land, 
he  will  probably  attempt  crossing  some  twenty  miles  above  Prairie 
du  Chien.  In  that  event  the  mounted  men  would  want  some  boats  for 
the  transportation  of  their  arms,  ammunition,  and  provisions.  If  you 


154  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

and  if  he  had  lived,  his  numerous  friends  would  never  have  per-  f 
mitted  him  to  submit  to  the  unworthy  artifices  used  to  deprive 
him  abroad  and  in  history,  of  his  well-earned  glory.  If  he 
had  lived,  he  would  have  been  elected  governor  of  the  State  in 
1834,  by  more  than  20,000  majority,  and  this  would  have  been 
done  against  his  own  will,  by  the  spontaneous  action  of  the 
people. 

The  next  day  after  the  battle  of  the  Wisconsin,  for  want  of 
provisions,  it  was  determined  to  fall  back  to  the  Blue  Mounds. 
The  Winnebagoes,  who  accompanied  Henry  during  his  forced 
march,  had  displayed  their  usual  treachery  and  cowardice,  by 
retreating  at  the  commencement  of  the  battle.  No  one,  then 
in  the  brigade,  knew  enough  of  the  country  to  act  as  guide. 
Henry  had  marched  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  through  an 
unknown  and  hitherto  unexplored  country,  without  roads  or 

could  procure  for  us  some  Mackinaw  boats  in  that  event,  as  well  &a 
some  provision  supplies,  it  would  greatly  facilitate  our  views.  Excuse 
great  haste.  I  am,  with  great  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

H.  DODGE, 
Col.  commanding  Michigan  Volunteers." 

The  fact  that  Gen.  Dodge  wrote  the  foregoing  letter,  beginning,  "  We 
met  the  enemy,"  continuing  "  Our  loss  was,"  <fcc.,  "  We  have  killed 
forty  of  them,"  "/think  we  must  overtake  them,"  "/  will  cross  the 
Wisconsin,"  <fec.,  the  fact  that  he  points  out  to  the  officer  at  Prairie  du 
Chien  what  to  do  to  intercept  the  Indians  and  aid  the  whites,  as  if 
Dodge  was  in  reality  the  commander,  the  fact  that  he  signs  himself 
"  Col.  commanding  Michigan  Volunteers,"  when  he  only  commanded 
a  small  battalion,  the  fact  that  he  says  nothing  of  Gen.  Henry,  who 
was  present,  but  does  speak  of  Gen.  Atkinson,  who  was  absent,  the  fact 
that  this  letter  was  republished  as  war  news  in  all  the  newspapers 
in  the  United  States,  and  the  fact  that  Henry  himself  never  made  any 
report  of  the  battle,  will,  whether  Gen.  Dodge  designed  it  or  not,  suf- 
ficiently explain  the  reason  why  Gen.  Henry  did  not  get  the  credit 
abroad  which  was  and  is  justly  due  him,  and  also  the  reason  why  Gen. 
Dodge  did  get  credit,  which  he  never  was  entitled  to,  of  being  the 
bero  of  the  Black  Hawk  war. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  155 

land-marks,  and  now  found  himself  in  a  position  from  which  no 
one  with  him  could  direct  his  way  to  the  settlement.  He  was 
without  provisions  for  his  men,  or  surgeons  or  accommodations 
for  the  wounded ;  horses  and  men  were  worn  down  with  fatigue, 
and  they  might  be  a  week  or  more  blundering  through  the  wil- 
derness, before  they  found  their  way  out.  A  council  was  called 
to  consider  these  difficulties;  and  whilst  it  was  debating  the 
course  to  be  pursued,  some  Indians  approached  with  a  white 
flag,  who  were  ascertained  to  be  friendly  Winnebagoes.  Their 
services  were  secured  as  guides.  Litters  were  made  for  the 
wounded ;  and  the  army  was  soon  on  the  march  for  the  Blue 
Mounds,  which  were  reached  in  two  days.  Here  Gen.  Henry 
met  Gen.  Atkinson,  with  the  regulars  and  Alexander's  and^Po- 
sey's  brigades.  It  was  soon  apparent  to  Gen.  Henry  and  all 
his  officers,  that  Gen.  Atkinson  and  all  the  regular  officers, 
were  deeply  mortified  at  the  success  of  the  militia.  They  did 
not  intend  that  the  militia  should  have  had  any  of  the  credit  in 
the  war.  The  success  of  Henry,  too,  was  obtained  by  a  breach 
of  orders,  and  in  defiance  of  the  counsels  of  those  who  professed 
exclusive  courage  and  knowledge  in  the  military  art.  The  reg- 
ular officers  evidently  envied  those  of  the  militia.  General  At- 
kinson had  always  relied  most  upon  the  regulars ;  they  had  all 
the  time  been  kept  in  advance,  and  now  it  was  too  much  to  be 
borne,  that  whilst  they  were  forted  at  Lake  Kushkowng,  the 
Indians  had  been  discovered,  pursued,  overtaken,  and  victory 
obtained,  by  the  Illinois  militia. 

After  spending  two  days  in  preparation  at  the  Blue  Mounds, 
the  whole  force,  now  under  the  direction  of  Gen.  Atkinson,  was 
again  on  the  march  in  pursuit  of  the  Indians.  The  Wisconsin 
river  was  crossed  at  Helena,  and  the  trail  of  the  Indians  was 
struck  in  the  mountains  on  the  other  side.  And  now  again  the 
regulars  were  put  in  front ;  Dodge's  battalion,  and  Posey's  and 
Alexander's  brigades,  came  next ;  and  Henry  was  placed  in  the 
rear,  in  charge  of  the  baggage,  the  commanding  general  thus 


156  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

making  known  the  ungenerous  envy  which  burned  in  his  bosom 
against  the  brave  men  who  had  distinguished  themselves  in  the 
previous  battle.  It  was  plain  that  if  other  laurels  were  to  be 
won,  they  were  to  be  worn  on  other  brows.  Henry's  brigade 
felt  that  they  had  been  visited  with  undeserved  insult,  for  they 
well  knew  that  they  deserved  better  treatment,  and  with  one 
voice  claimed  the  post  of  honor  and  of  danger.  But  Henry 
was  too  good  an  officer  to  utter  a  word  of  complaint,  and  his 
officers  and  men,  though  lately  the  victors  in  a  well-fought  field, 
following  his  noble  example,  quietly  trudged  on  in  the  rear, 
doing  the  drudgery  of  the  army  by  taking  charge  of  the  bag- 
gage trains. 

Day  after  day  the  whole  force  toiled  in  climbing  and  descend- 
ing mountains  covered  with  dense  forests,  and  passing  through 
swamps  of  deep,  black  mud  lying  in  the  intervening  valleys. 
But  the  march  was  slow  compared  with  that  preceding  the  bat- 
tle of  the  Wisconsin.  In  this  march  were  found,  all  along  the 
route,  the  melancholy  evidences  of  the  execution  done  in  that 
battle.  The  path  of  the  retreating  Indians  was  strewn  with 
the  wounded  who  had  died  on  the  march,  more  from  neglect 
and  want  of  skill  in  dressing  their  wounds  than  from  the  mor- 
tal nature  of  the  wounds  themselves.  Five  of  them  were  found 
dead  at  one  place  where  the  band  had  encamped  for  the  night. 

About  10  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  fourth  day  after 
crossing  the  Wisconsin,  Gen.  Atkinson's  advance  reached  the 
bluffs  on  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi.  The  Indians  had 
reached  the  bank  of  the  river  some  time  before.  Some  had 
crossed,  and  others  were  now  making  preparations  to  cross  it. 
The  steamboat  "  Warrior,"  commanded  by  Captain  Throck- 
morton,  descended  to  that  place  the  day  before.  As  the  steam- 
boat neared  the  camp  of  the  Indians,  they  raised  a  white  flag  ; 
but  Captain  Throckmorton,  believing  this  to  be  treacherously 
intended,  ordered  them  to  send  a  boat  on  board,  which  they 
declined  doing.  In  the  flippant  language  of  the  Captain,  after 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  157 

allowing  them  fifteen  minutes  to  remove  their  squaws  and  chil- 
dren, he  let  slip  a  six-pounder  at  them,  loaded  with  canister  shot, 
followed  by  a  severe  fire  of  musketry  ;  "  and  if  ever  you  saw 
straight  blankets,  you  would  have  seen  them  there."  Accord- 
ing to  the  Captain's  account,  the  "  fight"  continued  for  an  hour, 
and  cost  the  lives  of  twenty-three  Indians,  and  a  large  number 
wounded.  The  boat  then  fell  down  the  river  to  Prairie  du 
Chien  ;  and  before  it  could  return  the  next  morning^  the  land 
forces  under  Gen.  Atkinson  had  come  up  and  commenced  a 
general  battle. 

It  appears  that  the  Indians  were  encamped  on  the  bank  of 
the  Mississippi,  some  distance  below  the  mouth  of  the  Bad  Axe 
river.  They  were  aware  that  Gen.  Atkinson  was  in  close  pur- 
suit ;  and  to  gain  time  for  crossing  into  the  Indian  country  west 
of  the  Mississippi,  they  sent  back  about  twenty  men  to  meet 
Gen.  Atkinson,  within  three  or  four  miles  of  their  camp. 
This  party  of  Indians  were  instructed  to  commence  an  attack, 
and  then  to  retreat  to  the  river  three  miles  above  their  camp. 
Accordingly,  when  Gen.  Atkinson,  the  order  of  march  being  as 
before*,  came  within  three  or  four  miles  of  the  river,  he  was 
suddenly  fired  upon  from  behind  trees  and  logs,  the  very  tall 
grass  aiding  the  concealment  of  the  attacking  party.  Gen.  At- 
kinson rode  immediately  to  the  scene  of  action,  and  in  person 
formed  his  lines  and  directed  a  charge.  The  Indians  gave  way, 
and  were  pursued  by  Gen.  Atkinson  with  all  the  army,  except 
Henry's  brigade,  which  was  in  the  rear,  and  in  the  hurry  of 
pursuit  left  without  orders.  When  Henry  came  up  to  the  place 
where  the  attack  had  been  made,  he  saw  clearly  that  the  wily 
stratagem  of  the  untutored  savage  had  triumphed  over  the 
science  of  a  veteran  general.  The  main  trail  of  the  Indians  was 
plain  to  be  seen  leading  to  the  river  lower  down.  He  called 
a  hasty  council  of  his  principal  officers,  and  by  their  advice 
marched  right  forward  upon  the  main  trail.  At  the  foot  of  the 
high  bluff  bordering  the  river  valley,  on  the  edge  of  a  swamp 


158  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

densely  covered  with  timber,  drift-wood,  and  underbrush, 
through  which  the  trail  led  fresh  and  broad,  he  halted  his  com- 
mand and  left  his  horses.  The  men  were  formed  on  foot,  and 
thus  advanced  to  the  attack.  They  were  preceded  by  an  ad- 
vanced guard  of  eight  men,  who  were  sent  forward  as  a  forlorn 
hope,  and  were  intended  to  draw  the  first  fire  of  the  Indians, 
and  to  disclose  thereby  to  the  main  body  where  the  enemy  was 
to  be  found,  preparatory  to  a  general  charge.  These  eight  men 
advanced  boldly  some  distance,  until  they  came  within  sight  of 
the  river,  where  they  were  fired  upon  by  about  fifty  Indians, 
and  five  of  the  eight  instantly  fell  wounded  or  dead.  The  other 
three,  protected  behind  trees,  stood  their  ground  until  the  ar- 
rival of  the  main  body  under  Gen.  Henry,  which  deployed  to 
the  right  and  left  from  the  centre.  Immediately  the  bugle 
sounded  a  charge,  every  man  rushed  forward,  and  the  battle 
became  general  along  the  whole  line.  These  fifty  Indians  had 
retreated  upon  the  main  body,  amounting  to  about  three  hun- 
dred warriors,  a  force  equal  if  not  superior  to  that  now  contend- 
ing with  them.  It  was  soon  apparent  that  they  had  been  taken 
by  surprise.  They  fought  bravely  and  desperately,  but  seem- 
ingly without  any  plan  or  concert  of  action.  The  bugle  again 
sounded  the  inspiring  music  of  a  charge.  The  Indians  were 
driven  from  tree  to  tree,  and  from  one  hiding-place  to  another. 
In  this  manner  they  receded  step  by  step,  driven  by  the  ad- 
vancing foe,  until  they  reached  the  bank  of  the  river.  Here 
a  desperate  struggle  ensued,  but  it  was  of  short  duration.  The 
bloody  bayonet,  in  the  hands  of  excited  and  daring  men,  pur- 
sued and  drove  them  forward  into  the  waters  of  the  river. 
Some  of  them  tried  to  swim  the  river ;  others  to  take  a  tem- 
porary shelter  on  a  small  willow  island  near  the  shore. 

About  this  time  Gen.  Atkinson,  with  the  regulars  and 
Dodge's  battalion,  arrived,  followed  by  Posey's  and  Alexan- 
der's men.  But  the  main  work  had  been  done  before  they 
came  up.  It  had  been  determined  that  Henry's  men  should 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  159 

have  no  share  in  this  day's  glory,  but  the  fates,  taking  advan- 
tage of  a  blunder  of  Gen.  Atkinson,  had  otherwise  directed. 
After  the  Indians  had  retreated  into  the  river  and  on  to  the 
island,  Henry  despatched  Major  McConnell  to  give  intelligence 
of  his  movements  to  his  commander,  who,  whilst  pursuing  the 
twenty  Indians  in  another  direction,  had  heard  the  firing  where 
Henry  was  engaged.  Gen.  Atkinson  left  the  pursuit  of  the  twenty 
Indians,  and  hastened  to  share  in  the  engagement.  He  was  met 
by  Henry's  messenger  near  the  scene  of  action,  in  passing  through 
which,  the  dead  and  dying  Indians  lying  around  bore  fright- 
ful evidence  of  the  stern  work  which  had  been  done  before  his 
arrival.  He,  however,  lost  no  time  in  forming  his  regulars  and 
Dodge's  battalion  for  a  descent  upon  the  island.  These  forces, 
together  with  Ewing's  battalion  and  Fry's  regiment,  made  a 
charge  through  the  water  up  to  their  armpits  on  to  the  island, 
where  most  of  the  Indians  had  taken  their  last  refuge.  All 
the  Indians  who  attempted  to  swim  the  river  were  picked  off 
with  rifles  or  found  a  watery  grave  before  they  reached  the  op- 
posite shore.  Those  on  the  island  kept  up  a  severe  fire  from 
behind  logs  and  drift-wood  upon  the  men,  as  they  advanced  to 
the  charge  ;  and  here  a  number  of  regulars  and  of  volunteers 
under  Dodge,  were  killed  and  wounded.  But  most  of  the  In- 
dians there  secreted  were  either  killed,  captured,  or  driven  into 
the  water,  where  they  perished  miserably,  either  by  drowning 
or  by  the  still  more  fatal  rifle.  During  these  engagements  a 
number  of  squaws  were  killed.  They  were  dressed  so  much 
like  the  male  Indians,  that,  concealed  as  they  were  in  the  high 
grass,  it  was  impossible  to  distinguish  them.  It  is  estimated 
that  the  Indian  loss  here  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
killed,  and  as  many  more  who  were  drowned  in  the  river,  and 
fifty  prisoners  were  taken,  mostly  squaws  and  children.  The 
residue  of  the  Indians  had  escaped  across  the  river  before  the 
commencement  of  the  action.  The  twenty  men  who  first  com- 
menced the  attack,  led  by  Black  Hawk  in  person,  escaped  up 


160  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  river.  The  American  loss  amounted  to  seventeen  killed, 
one  of  them  a  captain  of  Dodge's  battalion  and  one  a  lieutenant 
of  Fry's  regiment,  and  twelve  wounded. 

It  appears  that  Black  Hawk,  with  his  twenty  men,  after  the 
commencement  of  the  battle  by  Gen.  Henry,  and  after  Gen. 
Atkinson  had  ceased  pursuit,  retreated  to  the  Dalles  on  the 
Wisconsin  river.  A  number  of  Sioux  and  Winnebago  Indians 
were  sent  in  pursuit  of  him.  These  tribes,  though  sympathiz- 
ing with  the  hostile  band,  were  as  accomplished  in  treachery 
to  their  friends,  when  friendship  was  most  needed,  as  are  a  more 
civilized  people.  They  had  lately  seen  so  striking  a  display  of 
the  strength  of  the  white  man,  that,  like  a  more  polished  race, 
their  mean  and  crafty  natures  clung  to  the  side  of  power. 
Headed  by  the  one-eyed  Decori,  a  Winnebago  chief,  they  went 
hi  pursuit  of  Black  Hawk  and  his  party,  and  captured  them 
high  up  on  the  Wisconsin  river.  The  prisoners  were  brought 
down  to  Prairie  du  Chien  and  delivered  up  to  Gen.  Street,  the 
United  States  Indian  Agent.  Amongst  them  was  a  son  of  Black 
Hawk,  and  also  the  Prophet,  a  noted  chief  who  formerly  re- 
sided at  Prophet's  town,  in  Whiteside  county,  and  who  was  one 
of  the  principal  instigators  of  the  war.  He  has  perhaps  been 
correctly  described  as  being  about  forty  years  old,  tall,  straight, 
and  athletic ;  with  a  large,  broad  face  ;  short,  blunt  nose  ;  large, 
full  eyes  ;  broad  mouth ;  thick  lips  ;  and  an  abundance  of  thick, 
coarse,  black  hair.  He  was  the  priest  and  prophet  of  his  tribe, 
and  he  mingled  with  his  holy  character  the  cruel  feelings  of  a 
wild  beast  of  the  feline  tribe  ;  exhibiting  in  his  looks  a  delib- 
erate ferocity,  and  embodying  in  his  person  all  our  notions  of 
priestly  assassination  and  clerical  murder.  He  was  dressed  in 
a  suit  of  very  white  deer-skin,  fringed  at  the  seams,  and  wore 
a  head-dress  of  white  cloth,  which  rose  several  inches  above  his 
head,  and  held  in  one  hand  a  white  flag,  whilst  the  other  hung 
carelessly  down  by  his  side. 

The  prisoners  were  presented  by  the  two  chiefs,  Decori  and 


HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS.  161 

Cheater.  The  Decori  said  to  Gen.  Street :  "  My  father,  I  now 
stand  before  you  ;  when  we  parted,  I  told  you  we  would  return 
soon.  We  had  to  go  a  great  distance,  to  the  Dalles  of  the 
Wisconsin.  You  see  that  we  have  done  what  we  went  to  do. 
These  are  the  two  you  told  us  to  get  (pointing  to  Black  Hawk 
and  the  Prophet).  We  always  do  what  you  tell  us,  because 
we  know  it  is  for  our  good.  My  father,  you  told  us  to  get 
these  men,  and  it  would  be  the  cause  of  much  good  to  the 
Winnebagoes.  We  have  brought  them,  but  it  has  been  very 
hard  for  us  to  do  it.  That  one,  Mucatah  Muhicatah,  was  a 
great  way  off.  You  told  us  to  bring  them  alive ;  we  have  done 
so.  If  you  had  told  us  to  bring  their  heads  alone,  we  would 
have  done  it.  It  would  have  been  easier  to  do  than  what  we 
have  done.  My  father,  we  deliver  these  men  into  your  hands ; 
we  would  not  deliver  them  even  to  our  brother,  the  chief,  of  the 
warriors,  but  to  you,  because  we  know  you,  and  believe  you 
are  our  friend.  We  want  you  to  keep  them  safe.  If  they  are 
to  be  hurt,  we  do  not  wish  to  see  it.  My  father,  many  little 
birds  have  been  flying  about  our  ears  of  late,  and  we  thought 
they  whispered  to  us,  that  there  was  evil  intended  for  us ;  but 
now  we  hope  the  evil  birds  will  let  our  ears  alone.  My  father, 
we  know  you  are  our  friend,  because  you  take  our  part ;  this 
is  the  reason  we  do  what  you  tell  us  to  do.  My  father,  you 
say  you  love  your  red  children ;  we  think  we  love  you  more 
than  you  love  us.  My  father,  we  were  promised  much  good 
if  we  would  take  these  people.  We  wait  to  see  what  good  will 
be  done  for  us.  My  father,  we  have  come  in  haste,  and  are 
tired  and  hungry ;  we  now  put  these  men  in  your  hands." 

The  foregoing  is  not  given  as  a  specimen  of  Indian  eloquence ; 
but  may  serve  as  a  fair  example  of  the  mean  spirit,  cringing, 
fawning,  and  flattering  of  these  rude  barbarians,  when  their  nat- 
ural ferocity  is  overpowered  by  fear. 

It  may  at  this  day  be  interesting  to  hear  the  answer  of  the 
great  Gen.  Taylor,  who  was  then  a  colonel  of  the  regulars,  to 


162  HISTORY   OF  ILLINOIS. 

• 

this  speech.  He  said  :  "  The  great  chief  of  the  warriors  told 
me  to  take  the  prisoners,  when  you  should  bring  them,  and 
send  them  to  him  at  Rock  Island.  I  will  take  them  and  keep 
them  safe,  and  use  them  well ;  and  will  send  them  down  by 
you  and  Gen.  Street,  when  you  go  down  to  the  council,  which 
will  be  in  a  few  days.  Your  friend,  Gen.  Street,  advised  you 
to  get  ready  and  go  down  to  the  council.  I  advise  you  to  do 
so  too.  I  tell  you  again,  that  I  will  take  the  prisoners,  keep 
them  safe,  and  do  them  no  harm.  I  will  deliver  them  to  the 
great  chief  of  the  warriors,  and  he  will  do  with  them  and  use 
them  as  he  may  be  directed  by  your  great  father  the  president." 
Cheater  addressed  Gen.  Street  as  follows ;  "  My  father,  I  am 
young,  and  don't  know  how  to  make  speeches.  This  is  the  sec- 
ond time  I  have  spoken  to  you,  before  the  people.  My  father, 
I  am  no  chief,  I  am  no  orator,  but  I  have  been  allowed  to  speak 
to  you.  My  father,  if  I  should  not  speak  as  well  as  others,  still 
you  must  listen  to  me.  My  father,  when  you  made  the  speech 
to  the  chiefs  Waugh-kon  Dacori,  Caramanee,  the  one-eyed  Da- 
cori  and  others,  the  other  day,  I  was  there  and  heard  you.  I 
thought  what  you  said  to  them  you  also  said  to  me.  You  said 
if  these  two  (pointing  to  Black  Hawk  and  the  Prophet)  were 
brought  to  you,  a  black  cloud  would  never  again  hang  over  the 
Winnebagoes.  My  father,  your  words  entered  into  my  ears 
and  into  my  heart.  I  left  here  that  very  night,  and  you  have 
not  seen  me  since  until  now.  My  father,  I  have  been  a  great 
way.  I  have  had  much  trouble.  But  when  I  remember  what 
you  said,  knowing  you  were  right,  I  kept  right  on,  and  did 
what  you  told  me  to  do.  Near  the  Dalles  on  the  Wisconsin 
river,  I  took  Black  Hawk.  No  one  did  it  but  me.  I  say  this 
in  the  ears  of  all  present ;  they  know  it  to  be  true.  My  father, 
I  am  no  chief,  but  what  I  have  done  is  for  the  benefit  of  my 
nation ;  and  I  now  hope  for  the  good  that  has  been  promised 
us.  My  father,  that  one,  Wabokishick,  (the  prophet,)  is  my 
kinsman.  If  he  is  hurt,  I  do  not  wish  to  see  it.  The  soldiers 


HISTORY   OF  ILLINOIS. 

sometimes  stick  the  ends  of  their  guns  into  the  backs  of  the 
Indian  prisoners,  when  they  are  going  about  in  the  hands  of  the 
guard.  I  hope  this  will  not  be  done  to  these  men."  This  is  a 
more  manly  specimen  of  Indian  oratory,  showing  much  gener- 
ous feeling,  delicately  expressed. 

General  Atkinson,  with  the  regulars,  had  gone  down  to 
Prairie  Du  Chien,  in  the  steamboat  Warrior ;  the  volunteers 
had  marched  down  by  land.  Here  they  met  Gen.  Scott,  who 
had  been  ordered  from  the  East  to  take  the  chief  command  in 
this  war.  In  eighteen  days,  Gen.  Scott  had  transported  a  reg- 
ular force  from  Fortress  Monroe,  on  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  to 
Chicago.  On  their  route  up  the  lakes,  they  were  dreadfully 
afflicted  with  the  Asiatic  cholera,  then  a  new  and  strange  dis- 
ease, making  its  first  appearance  on  the  continent  of  America. 
It  suddenly  broke  out  among  his  troops  at  Detroit,  about  forty 
miles  from  which  place  two  hundred  and  eight  men  were  landed, 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  (now  General)  Twiggs,  of  whom 
it  is  said  only  nine  survived.  The  main  body  under  Gen.  Scott 
came  on  to  Chicago,  but  were  attacked  with  the  same  disease  at 
Mackinaw,  and  by  the  time  they  arrived  at  Chicago,  the  con- 
tagion was  general ;  and  within  thirty  days,  ninety  more  were 
carried  to  their  graves.  Gen.  Scott  staid  at  Chicago  about  a 
month,  and  reached  the  Mississippi  at  Rock  Island,  some  time 
in  August  1832 ;  but  not  until  the  decisive  affair  at  the  Bad 
Axe  had  terminated  the  war. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  troops  at  Prairie  Du  Chien,  the  vol- 
unteers were  ordered  to  Dixon,  where  they  were  discharged, 
and  then  each  merry,  brave  man,  hastened  as  he  pleased  to  his 
home,  his  kindred  and  friends.  Black  Hawk  and  his  son, 
Naapape,  Wishick,  and  the  Prophet,  were  sent  down  to  Rock 
Island  ;  and  with  them  went  many  of  the  Winnebago  chiefs  to 
meet  Keokuk,  and  the  other  chiefs  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxs. 
But  when  they  arrived  at  Rock  Island,  the  place  appointed  for 
a  treaty,  the  cholera  had  broken  out  there,  so  that  Gen.  Scott 


164  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

and  Gov.  Reynolds,  with  the  prisoners  and  other  chiefs,  fell 
down  to  Jefferson  Barracks ;  where  a  treaty  was  made,  by 
which  the  Sacs  and  Foxs  ceded  to  the  United  States  a  large 
tract  of  land  bordering  on  the  Mississippi,  from  the  Desmoine 
to  Turkey  river,  in  the  territory  of  Iowa.  The  prisoners  named 
were  held  as  hostages,  for  the  peaceable  behavior  of  the  hostile 
Indians.  They  were  taken  to  Washington  City,  where  they  had 
an  interview  with  President  Jackson,  to  whom,  it  is  reported, 
Black  Hawk  said :  "  I  am  a  man  and  you  are  another.  We 
did  not  expect  to  conquer  the  white  people.  I  took  up  the 
hatchet  to  revenge  injuries,  which  could  no  longer  be  borne. 
Had  I  borne  them  longer,  my  people  would  have  said,  Black 
Hawk  is  a  squaw ;  he  is  too  old  to  be  a  chief.  He  is  no  Sac. 
This  caused  me  to  raise  the  war-whoop.  I  say  no  more  of  it. 
All  is  known  to  you.  Keokuk  once  was  here ;  you  took  him 
by  the  hand,  and  when  he  wanted  to  return  you  sent  him  back 
to  his  nation.  Black  Hawk  expects,  that  like  Keokuk,  we  will 
be  permitted  to  return  too."  The  President  told  him,  that 
when  he  was  satisfied  that  all  things  would  remain  quiet,  they 
should  return.  He  then  took  them  by  the  hand  and  dismissed 
them.  They  were  then  sent  to  Fortress  Monroe,  where  Black 
Hawk  became  much  attached  to  Col.  Eustiss,  the  commander 
at  the  fort.  On  parting  with  him,  Black  Hawk  said :  "  The 
memory  of  your  friendship  will  remain  until  the  Great  Spirit 
says,  that  it  is  time  for  Black  Hawk  to  sing  his  death  song ;" 
then  presenting  him  with  a  hunting-dress,  and  some  feathers 
of  the  white  eagle,  he  said :  "  Accept  these,  my  brother ;  I 
have  given  one  like  them  to  the  White  Beaver,"  (Gen.  Atkin- 
son.) "  Accept  them  from  Black  Hawk,  and  when  he  is  far 
away,  they  will  serve  to  remind  you  of  him.  May  the  Great 
Spirit  bless  you  and  your  children.  Farewell." 

By  order  of  the  President,  these  Indian  prisoners,  on  the  4th 
day  of  June,  1833,  were  returned  to  their  own  country.  They 
were  taken  to  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  other 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  165 

cities,  to  show  them  the  numbers  and  power  of  the  white  peo- 
ple. In  all  these  places  they  attracted  great  attention ;  crowds 
everywhere  collected  to  see  them ;  and  they  even  divided  the 
attention  and  curiosity  of  the  public  with  Gen.  Jackson  him- 
self, who  was  then  making  the  tour  of  the  northern  States. 
Amongst  others,  the  ladies  universally  sought  their  acquaint- 
ance ;  and  one  young  lady,  (said  to  be  respectable,)  in  her  ad- 
miration of  Black  Hawk's  son,  actually  kissed  him,  before 
crowds  of  people.  In  return  for  their  politeness  and  sympathy, 
Black  Hawk  told  them  that  they  were  "  very  pretty  squaws." 
They  were  returned  by  way  of  the  New  York  canal  and  the 
northern  lakes,  to  their  own  people  in  the  wilderness  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  Black  Hawk  lived  until  the  3d  of  October, 
1840,  when  he  was  gathered  to  his  fathers  at  the  age  of  eighty 
years,  and  was  burried  on  the  banks  of  the  great  river  where 
he  had  spent  his  life,  and  which  he  had  loved  so  much. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

First  efforts  for  a  Railroad  system— Central  Railroad— Impeachment  of  Judge  Smith- 
Benjamin  Mills — Other  efforts  to  impeach  judges — Effect  on  the  public  mind — Elec- 
tion of  Governor — Governor  Duncan — Creation  of  a  new  State  Bank— Conrad  Will — 
Means  of  passing  its  charter — Road  Tax — Hooking  timber — Preachers  employed  to 
preach  against  trespasses— Veto  power— Banking  in  Illinois— Increase  of  the  Bank 
Stock — Slock  readily  taken — Intrigues  of  the  subscribers — State  Bank  goes  into  the 
hands  of  Thomas  Mather  and  his  friends — Effort  to  build  up  Alton— The  Lead  trade 
— Unfortunate  speculations — Real  estate  fund — Hostility  of  the  Democrats — Illinois 
and  Michigan  canal — George  Forquer's  report — Bill  to  borrow  money — Passed  with 
an  amendment  to  borrow  on  the  credit  of  canal  lands— Great  speculation  in  1835-'6 
— Internal  Improvement  system — Means  of  passing  it — Calculations  of  its  funds — 
Election  of  Board  of  Public  Works— Bank  suspensions,  negotiations— Election  of 
Governor  in  1838 — Thomas  Corlin — Cyrus  Edwards — Maxim  of  politicians — Explo- 
sion of  the  Internal  Improvement  system — Presidential  election  of  1840 — Further 
history  of  parties— Work  on  the  canal— Payment  of  interest— Mr.  Cavarly's  bill. 

AFTER  the  Black  Hawk  war,  nothing  of  importance  occurred 
until  the  session  of  the  legislature  of  1832-'3 ;  which  was  dis- 
tinguished for  the  first  efforts  seriously  made  to  construct  rail- 
roads, and  to  impeach  one  of  the  judges.  Several  charters 
passed  to  incorporate  railroad  companies;  and  an  effort  was 
made  to  procure  a  charter  for  a  railroad  from  Lake  Michigan 
to  the  Illinois  river,  in  place  of  a  canal.  The  stock  in  none  of 
these  companies  was  ever  taken.  At  this  session  also  were 
first  proposed  in  the  Senate,  surveys  for  a  railroad  across  the 
State  through  Springfield ;  and  the  central  railroad  from  Peru 
to  Cairo.  George  Forquer  proposed  the  first,  and  the  last  was 
proposed  by  Lieutenant  Governor  Jenkins,  though  the  central 
railroad  had  before  been  suggested  in  a  newspaper  publication 
by  Judge  Breese,  now  Senator  in  Congress. 

Numerously  signed  petitions  from  the  people  were  sent  up 
to  this  legislature,  praying  the  impeachment  of  Theophilus  W. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  167 

Smith,  one  of  the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  for  oppressive 
conduct  and  misdemeanors  in  office.  Witnesses  were  sent  for, 
and  examined  by  the  House  of  Representatives.  Articles  of  im- 
peachment were  voted  and  sent  up  to  the  Senate,  charging  the 
judge  with  selling  a  clerk's  office,  of  one  of  the  circuit  courts ; 
with  swearing  out  vexatious  writs  returnable  before  himself,  for 
the  purpose  of  oppressing  innocent  men  by  holding  them  to 
bail,  and  then  continuing  the  suits  for  several  terms  in  a  court 
of  which  he  was  judge ;  with  imprisoning  a  Quaker  for  not 
taking  off  his  hat  in  court ;  and  with  suspending  a  lawyer  from 
practice  for  advising  his  client  to  apply  for  a  change  of  venue 
to  some  other  circuit,  where  Judge  Smith  did  not  preside.  A 
solemn  trial  was  had  before  the  Senate,  which  sat  as  a  high 
court  of  impeachment,  and  which  trial  lasted  for  several  weeks. 
The  judge  was  prosecuted  by  a  committee  of  managers  from 
the  House  of  Representatives,  of  which  Benjamin  Mills  was 
chairman.  This  highly-gifted  man  shone  forth  with  uncommon 
brilliancy,  in  three  days  summing  up,  by  way  of  conclusion,  on 
the  side  of  the  prosecution.  At  last  the  important  day  and 
hour  came  when  a  vote  was  to  be  taken,  which  was  to  be  a 
sentence  of  doom  to  one  of  the  magnates  of  the  land,  or  was  to 
restore  him  to  his  high  office,  and  to  the  confidence  of  his 
friends.  But  during  the  progress  of  the  trial,  Judge  Smith  pro- 
cured some  one  to  go  into  the  Senate  chamber  regularly  after 
every  adjournment  and  gather  up  the  scraps  of  paper  on  the 
desks  of  the  senators,  upon  which  they  had  scribbled  during  the 
trial.  From  these,  much  information  was  obtained  as  to  the 
feelings  of  senators,  their  doubts  and  difficulties  ;  and  this  en- 
abled him  and  his  counsel  to  direct  their  evidence  and  arguments 
to  better  advantage.  The  whole  country  looked  with  anxious 
expectation  for  the  result  of  this  trial.  The  vote  being  taken, 
it  appeared  that  twelve  of  the  senators  concurred  in  believing 
him  guilty  of  some  of  the  specifications ;  ten  were  in  favor  of 
acquitting  him ;  and  four  were  excused  from  voting.  It  ap- 


168  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

pears  from  the  journals,  that  fifteen  senators,  being  a  majority 
of  two-thirds  of  the  senators  voting,  had  voted  him  guilty  of 
one  or  the  other  of  the  specifications ;  but  as  twelve  was  the 
highest  vote  against  him,  on  any  one  specification,  he  was  ac- 
quitted. The  House  of  Representatives,  by  a  two-thirds  vote, 
immediately  passed  a  resolution  to  remove  him  by  address,  but 
the  resolution  failed  in  the  Senate. 

Afterwards,  other  efforts  were  made  to  impeach  judges  for 
misconduct,  but  without  success.  So  that  latterly  the  legisla- 
ture has  refused  even  to  make  an  effort  to  bring  a  judge  to  trial ; 
knowing  that  whether  guilty  or  innocent,  such  an  effort  can 
have  no  other  result,  than  to  increase  the  length  and  expenses 
of  the  session.  This  conviction  has  been  so  general  among  in- 
telligent men,  that  it  has  had  a  wonderful  effect  in  creating  a 
feeling  in  favor  of  limiting  the  term  of  service  of  the  judges. 

In  Aiigust,  1834,  another  election  came  on  for  Governor, 
which  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Governor  Duncan.  Lieutenant 
Governor  Kinney  was  again  the  opposition  candidate.  By  this 
time  Governor  Duncan  had  become  thoroughly  estranged  from 
the  friends  and  administration  of  Gen.  Jackson.  But  as  he  was 
absent  in  Congress  when  he  became  a  candidate,  and  never  re- 
turned until  after  the  election,  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Jackson 
party  had  no  means  of  ascertaining  his  defection.  It  was  known 
to  the  anti-Jackson  men,  and  to  the  leading  men  of  the  Jackson 
party.  These  last  had  not  credit  enough  with  their  party  friends 
to  make  them  believe  it,  nor  would  they  believe  it,  until  the 
publication  of  the  new  governor's  inaugural  message,  which 
took  bold  and  strong  ground  against  the  measures  of  Gen.  Jack- 
son's administration.  About  this  time  the  anti-Jackson  party 
began  generally  to  take  the  name  of  Whigs ;  and  attempted  to 
base  it,  as  did  the  whigs  of  the  revolution,  upon  opposition  to 
the  executive  power.  It  may  be  well  here  to  give  some  further 
account  of  Governor  Duncan.  He  was  a  native  of  Kentucky ; 
and  when  quite  young,  obtained  an  ensign's  commission  during 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  169 

the  war  of  1812.  He  was  with  Col.  Croughan  and  his  handful 
of  men,  at  the  defence  of  Fort  Stephenson,  against  ten  times 
their  number  of  British  and  Indians.  This  brilliant  affair  was 
the  means  of  distinguishing  all  the  inferior  officers  engaged  in 
it,  and  immortalized  their  commander. 

Governor  Duncan  was  a  man  of  genteel,  affable,  and  manly 
deportment ;  with  a  person  remarkably  well  adapted  to  win 
the  esteem  and  affections  of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  had  not 
been  long  a  citizen  of  this  State,  before  he  was  elected  major- 
general  of  the  militia,  and  then  a  State  Senator,  where  he  dis- 
tinguished himself  in  the  session  of  1824-'5,  by  being  the  author 
of  the  first  common  school  law  which  was  ever  passed  in  this 
State.  He  was  next  elected  to  Congress,  in  wnich  he  continued 
as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  until  he  was 
elected  governor  in  1834.  He  was  a  man  of  but  little  educa- 
tion or  knowledge,  except  what  he  had  picked  up  during  his 
public  services,  and  he  had  profited  to  the  utmost  by  these  ad- 
vantages. He  had  a  sound  judgment,  a  firm  confidence  in  his 
own  convictions  of  right,  and  a  moral  courage  in  adhering  to 
his  convictions,  which  is  rarely  met  with. 

A  new  legislature  was  elected  at  the  same  time  with  Gover- 
nor Duncan,  which  met  at  Vandalia  hi  Dec.  1834.  At  that 
time,  the  State  was  in  a  very  flourishing  and  prosperous  condi- 
tion. Population  and  wealth  were  pouring  into  it  from  all  the 
old  States.  The  great  speculation  in  lands  and  town  lots, 
shortly  afterwards  so  rife,  had  made  only  a  beginning,  and  that 
at  Chicago  alone.  The  people  were  industrious,  and  contented 
with  the  usual  profits  of  labor,  skill,  and  capital.  They  were 
free  from  debt ;  and  the  treasury  of  the  State,  for  once,  had 
become  solvent,  paying  all  demands  in  cash.  If  the  prevalent 
speculations,  further  east,  had  not  commenced  in  Illinois,  there 
were  certainly  very  many  persons  who  were  anxious  that  they 
should  begin ;  for  at  this  session,  the  legislature  undertook  to 
better  the  condition  of  public  and  private  affairs,  by  chartering 

8 


170  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

a  new  State  Bamc,  with  •  a  capital  of  one  million  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars ;  and  by  reviving  the  charter  of  the  bank  at 
Shawneetown,  with  a  capital  of  three  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
which  had  once  broke,  and  had  ceased  to  do  business  for  twelve 
years.  This  was  the  beginning  of  all  the  bad  legislation  which 
followed  in  a  few  years,  and  which,  as  is  well  known,  resulted 
in  general  ruin.  At  the  commencement  of  this  session,  no  one 
could  have  anticipated  the  creation  of  a  bank.  The  people, 
with  one  accord,  ever  since  the  failure  of  the  old  State  Bank  of 
1821,  had  looked  upon  local  banks  with  disfavor.  And  the 
whigs  at  that  time,  contending  as  they  were,  for  a  national 
bank,  were  thought  to  be  hostile  to  banks  of  any  other  kind. 
But  a  large  majority  of  them  hi  both  branches  of  the  legisla- 
ture, voted  for  these  bank  charters.  The  United  States  Bank, 
vetoed  by  Gen.  Jackson,  was  about  to  go  out  of  existence.  Mr. 
Woodbury,  the  United  States  secretary  of  the  treasury,  had 
encouraged  the  State  and  local  banks  to  discount  liberally,  with 
a  view  to  supply  the  deficiency  of  currency,  anticipated  upon 
the  discontinuance  of  the  United  States  Bank.  From  this,  very 
many  democrats  inferred  it  to  be  the  wish  of  Gen.  Jackson's 
administration,  that  State  banks  should  be  created  where  they 
did  not  exist ;  and  with  this  view,  these  democrats  were  now 
in  favor  of  the  creation  of  -banks.  The  intrigues  practised  to 
pass  these  charters,  are  but  imperfectly  known  to  me.  The 
charter  for  the  State  Bank  was  drawn  by  Judge  Smith,  and 
presented  in  the  Senate  by  Conrad  Will,  of  Jackson  county. 
It  was  in  honor  of  him  that  the  county  of  Will  was  subse- 
quently named.  He  was  not  remarkable  for  anything  except 
his  good-humor,  and  for  having  been  long  a  member  of  the 
legislature.  One  member  of  the  Senate,  who  was  bitterly  hos- 
tile to  all  banks,  and  was  opposed  to  the  Shawneetown  Bank 
bill  on  constitutional  grounds,  as  he  declared  from  his  place  in 
the  Senate,  gave  both  the  bank  charters  his  hearty  support  hi 
consideration  of  assistance  in  passing  a  law  to  levy  a  tax  on 


HISTORY  OF    ILLINOIS.  171 

land  in  the  military  tract,  for  road  purposes ;  and  a  member 
of  the  House  supported  them,  because  the  bank  men  made  him 
a  State's  attorney. 

It  may  be  thought  strange,  that  an  increase  of  taxes  was  so 
earnestly  insisted  on  at  that  early  day,  as  to  be  made  the  sub- 
ject of  log-rolling  in  the  creation  of  a  bank.  But  it  is  to  be 
remembered,  that  the  military  lands  were  then  owned  princi- 
pally by  non-residents,  who  were  unwilling  to  sell  except  at 
high  prices.  Every  town  built,  farm  made,  road  opened,  bridge 
or  school-house  erected  by  the  settlers  in  their  vicinity,  added 
to  the  value  of  these  lands,  at  no  expense  to  the  non-resident. 
The  people  persuaded  themselves  that  in  improving  their  own 
farms,  they  were  putting  money  into  the  pockets  of  men  who 
did  nothing  for  the  country,  except  to  skin  it  as  fast  as  any  hide 
grew  on  it.  This  tax  was  called  for,  to  make  the  non-resident 
owner  contribute  his  share  to  the  improvement  of  the  country, 
and  thus  by  burdening  his  land  with  taxes,  render  him  more 
willing  to  sell  it.  A  very  bad  state  of  feeling  existed  towards 
the  non-resident  land-owners;  the  timber  on  their  land  was 
considered  free  plunder,  to  be  cut  and  swept  away  by  every 
comer ;  the  owners  brought  suits  for  damage,  but  where  the 
witnesses  and  jurors  were  all  on  one  side,  justice  was  forced  to 
go  with  them.  The  non-residents  at  last  bethought  themselves 
of  employing  and  sending  out  ministers  of  the  gospel,  to  preach 
to  the  people  against  the  sin  of  stealing,  or  hooking  timber,  as 
it  was  called.  These  preachers  each  had  a  circuit,  or  district 
of  country  assigned  them  to  preach  in,  and  were  paid  by  the 
sermon ;  but  I  have  never  learned  that  the  non-resident  land- 
owners succeeded  any  better  in  protecting  their  property  by 
the  gospel,  than  they  did  at  law. 

But  to  return  to  the  banks.  How  many  other  converts  were 
made  in  their  favor,  by  similar  means,  must  remain  forever  a 
secret. „  The  State  Bank  charter  was  passed  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  a  majority  of  one  vote ;  so  that  it  may  be 


172  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

said  that  making  of  a  State's  attorney  made  a  State  Bank.  The 
vote  in  the  legislature  was  not  a  party  vote ;  the  banks  were 
advocated  and  supported  upon  grounds  of  public  utility  and 
expediency ;  and  like  on  the  vote  upon  the  internal  improve- 
ment system,  which  followed  at  the  next  session,  both  whigs 
and  democrats  were  earnestly  invited  to  lay  party  feelings 
aside,  and  all  go,  at  least  once,  for  the  good  of  the  country. 
Whenever  I  have  heard  this  cry  since,  I  have  always  suspected 
that  some  great  mischief  was  to  be  done,  for  which  no  party 
desired  to  be  responsible  to  the  people.  As  majorities  have 
the  power,  so  it  is  their  duty  to  carry  on  the  government.  The 
majority,  as  long  as  parties  are  necessary  in  a  free  government, 
ought  never  to  divide,  and  a  portion  of  it  join  temporarily  with 
the  minority.  It  should  always  have  the  wisdom  and  courage 
to  adopt  all  the  measures  necessary  for  good  government.  As 
a  general  thing,  if  the  minority  is  anything  more  than  a  faction, 
if  it  has  any  principles,  and  is  true  to  them,  it  will  rally  an  op- 
position to  all  that  is  done  by  the  majority ;  and  even  if  it  is 
convinced  that  the  measures  of  the  majority  are  right,  it  is 
safest  for  the  minority  to  compel  the  majority  to  take  the  un- 
divided responsibility  of  government.  By  this  means  there 
will  always  be  a  party  to  expose  the  faults  and  blunders  of  our 
rulers ;  and  the  majority  will  be  more  careful  what  they  do. 
But  if  the  minority  mixes  itself  up  with  the  majority  in  the 
support  of  great  measures,  which  prove  unfortunate  for  the 
country,  neither  party  can  expose  the  error  without  prostrating 
its  own  favorites.  In  this  way,  many  persons  now  prominent 
as  politicians  in  this  State,  have  gone  un whipped  of  justice,  who 
otherwise  would  have  been  consigned  to  an  unfathomable  ob- 
livion. Certain  it  is,  that  if  this  course  had  been  observed  in 
the*  enactment  of  the  disastrous  measures  of  this  and  the  suc- 
ceeding session  of  the  legislature,  the  dominant  party  would 
never  have  dared,  as  it  did  not  afterwards  dare,  to  risk  the  con- 
tinuance of  popular  favor,  by  supporting  such  a  policy. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  173 

These  banks  were  brought  into  existence  in  violation  of  the 
plainest  principles  of  political  economy.  The  State  was  young. 
There  was  no  social  or  business  organization  upon  any  settled 
principles.  A  large  crowd  of  strangers,  as  it  were,  had  met 
here  for  adventure.  Our  most  sagacious  citizens  were  of  this 
sort.  We  had  no  cities,  no  trade,  no  manufactures,  and  no 
punctuality  in  the  payment  of  debts.  We  exported  little  or 
nothing.  We  had  no  surplus  capital,  and  consequently  the 
capital  for  banking  must  come  from  abroad.  Some  few  then 
foresaw,  what  proved  true,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  di- 
rectors and  officers  for  two  banks  and  numerous  branches,  who, 
from  their  known  integrity  and  financial  knowledge,  would  be 
entitled  to  the  public  confidence.  The  stockholders  would  (as 
they  did)  reside  abroad,  in  other  States.  They  could  not  su- 
pervise the  conduct  of  the  directory  in  person.  It  was  probable 
that  many  improvident  loans  would  be  made,  and  that  the  banks 
would  be  greatly  troubled  in  making  their  collections. 

It  appears  to  me  that  banking  cannot  be  successful  in  any 
country  where  the  capital  comes  necessarily  from  abroad.  The 
stockholders  will  be  imposed  on.  They  cannot  conveniently 
meet  in  proper  person  to  examine  the  banks,  but  must  from 
year  to  year  trust  everything  to  agents,  who,  the  whole  world 
says,  never  manage  other  people's  business  as  well  as  their  own. 
Banking  cannot  succeed  except  in  a  state  of  settled,  organized 
society,  where  honesty,  truth,  and  fidelity  are  paramount ; 
where  the  merchants  and  business  men  have  all  received  a 
regular  commercial  training  ;  where  they  have  been  educated 
from  their  youth  upwards  in  the  principles  and  practice  of  com- 
mercial honor  and  punctuality  ;  where  a  bank  protest,  by  break- 
ing a  man  and  closing  his  business,  is  more  terrible  than  im- 
prisonment ;  where  the  laws  favor  the  collection  of  debts,  and 
the  whole  people  are  in  the  habit  of  prompt  payment.  In  such 
a  society,  honest  and  capable  men  may  be  readily  found  to 
manage  banks,  and  those  who  deal  with  them  may  be  relied  on 


174  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

for  punctuality.  I  place  great  stress  upon  punctuality,  as  the 
vital  principle  of  safe  banking.  Because  if  the  debtors  of  the 
bank  do  not  pay,  the  bank  itself  cannot. 

Nor  can  banking  succeed  in  a  State  where  the  great  body  of 
the  people,  or  any  considerable  party  of  them,  are  opposed  to 
banks.  Some  project  to  repeal  their  charter,  or  harass  them, 
will  be  started  at  every  session  of  the  legislature,  and  they  will 
be  strongly  tempted  to  extend  their  favors  further  than  safety 
will  warrant,  for  the  purpose  of  silencing  opposition.  In  a  com- 
munity like  Illinois,  there  are  scores  of  men  in  every  county 
who,  from  their  business,  or  rather  want  of  business,  and  want 
of  punctuality,  cannot  with  safety  be  favored  by  a  bank.  Yet 
such  men  are  not  destitute  of  political  importance  and  influence, 
and  can  give  the  banks  great  trouble  if  a  loan  is  refused.  Fa- 
vor to  such  persons  is  a  fraud  upon  the  stockholders  and  the 
community  which  credits  the  circulation.  Nevertheless,  banks 
are  driven  to  accommodate  such  persons,  and,  in  fact,  to  abso- 
lute bribery,  for  the  purpose  of  buying  their  peace. 

I  aver,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  when  these  banks 
were  chartered,  there  was,  in  a  manner,  no  surplus  capital  in 
the  State ;  that  the  capital  came  mostly  from  abroad  ;  that  the 
stockholders  resided  at  a  distance,  and  never  had  a  meeting,  in 
proper  person,  in  this  State  ;  that  we  had  no  cities,  and  but  few 
large  towns  ;  that,  in  a  manner,  we  exported  nothing,  but  im- 
ported everything  except  meat  and  breadstuffs,  and  indeed  much 
of  these.  We  had  no  settled  society.  The  business  men  were 
not  generally  men  of  commercial  training  and  education.  The 
laws  did  not  favor  the  collection  of  debts,  nor  did  the  public 
sentiment  frown  upon  a  want  of  punctuality. 

After  the  internal  improvement  system  was  adopted  at  a 
subsequent  session,  its  friends  increased  the  capital  of  these 
banks,  by  making  the  State  a  stockholder  in  each.  The  capi- 
tal of  the  State  Bank  was  increased  two  millions  of  dollars, 
and  the  Illinois  Bank  one  million  four  hundred  thousand  dollars. 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  175 

The  stock  in  the  State  Bank  was  readily  and  greedily  taken, 
and  the  subscriptions  greatly  exceeded  the  amount  allowed  by 
the  charter.  Early  in  the  spring  of  1835,  John  Tillson,  jr., 
then  of  Hillsboro' ;  Thomas  Mather,  then  of  Kaskaskia  ;  God- 
frey Oilman  &  Co.,  then  of  Alton  ;  Theophilus  W.  Smith,  then 
one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court ;  and  Samuel  Wiggins, 
of  Cincinnati,  made  arrangements  to  obtain  large  sums  of 
money  in  the  eastern  cities,  principally  in  New  York  and  Con- 
necticut, to  be  invested  in  this  stock.  The  charter  required  the 
advance  of  five  dollars  on  each  share  subscribed,  and  gave  a 
preference  to  citizens  of  the  State.  It  also  provided  against 
the  undue  influence  of  large  stockholders,  by  reducing  their 
(proportional)  vote  for  directors.  These  provisions  made  it 
desirable,  not  only  that  all  the  stock  should  be  subscribed  by 
citizens  of  the  State,  but  also,  that  all  subscriptions  should  be 
small  in  amount.  Accordingly,  each  of  these  gentlemen,  with 
a  view  of  monopolizing  the  stock  and  controlling  the  bank,  em- 
ployed men  all  over  the  country  to  obtain  powers  of  attorney 
from  any  and  all  who  were  willing  to  execute  them,  author- 
izing one  or  the  other  of  these  persons  to  act  as  their  agents  in 
subscribing  for  stock,  and  to  transfer  and  control  it  afterwards. 

Many  thousands  of  such  subscriptions  were  made,  in  the  names 
of  as  many  thousands  who  never  dreamed  of  being  bankers,  and 
who  do  not  know  to  this  day  that  they  were  ever,  apparently, 
the  owners  of  bank  stock. 

The  contest  for  the  control  of  the  bank  was  between  Judge 
Smith,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  other  gentlemen  named,  on  the 
other.  When  the  commissioners  met  to  apportion  the  stock,  a 
motion  was  made,  that  all  subscriptions  by  or  for  the  use  of 
citizens  of  the  State,  should  be  preferred  to  subscriptions  made 
for  the  use  of  persons  residing  abroad,  and  requiring  all  hold- 
ers of  proxies  to  make  oath  as  to  the  fact  of  residence  or  non- 
residence.  This  resolution  was  advocated  by  Judge  Smith,  who 
stood  ready,  as  it  was  said,  to  swear  that  all  the  stock  subscrib- 


176  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

ed  by  him,  in  his  own  name  or  by  power  of  attorney,  bonafide 
belonged  to  him,  and  had  been  paid  for  by  his  own  money.  The 
other  great  operators  could  not  make  such  an  oath,  and  conse- 
quently opposed  the  resolution,  which  was  defeated.  Tillson, 
Mather,  Wiggins,  and  Godfrey  Gilman  &  Co.,  combined  against 
Smith.  They  obtained  a  controlling  portion  of  the  stock.  Math- 
er was  made  president,  and  a  directory  was  elected,  who  were 
in  the  interest  of  the  combination.  The  directors  appointed 
were  probably  as  good  men  for  the  trust  as  could  have  been 
found  in  the  State. 

As  I  have  said,  the  stock  in  the  State  Bank  having  been  taken, 
it  went  into  operation  under  the  control  of  Thomas  Mather  and 
his  friends,  in  1835.  The  Alton  interest  in  it  was  very  large. 
Godfrey  Gilman  &  Co.,  merchants  of  Alton,  had  obtained  con- 
trol of  a  large  part  of  the  stock  ;  enough,  in  case  of  division, 
to  control  the  election  of  directors.  To  conciliate  them,  the 
bank  undertook  to  lend  its  aid  to  build  up  Alton,  in  rivalry  of 
St.  Louis.  At  this  time,  a  strong  desire  was  felt  by  many  to 
create  a  commercial  emporium  in  our  own  State  ;  and  it  was 
hoped  that  Alton  could  be  made  such  a  place.  As  yet,  how- 
ever, nearly  the  whole  trade  of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  of  the 
Upper  Mississippi,  was  concentrated  at  St.  Louis.  The  little 
pork,  beef,  wheat,  flour,  and  such  other  articles  as  the  country 
afforded  for  export,  were  sent  to  St.  Louis  to  be  shipped.  All 
the  lead  of  the  upper  and  lower  lead-mines  was  shipped  from 
or  on  account  of  the  merchants  of  St.  Louis.  Exchange  on  the 
east  to  any  amount  could  only  be  purchased  at  St.  Louis  ;  and 
many  of  the  smaller  merchants  all  over  the  country  went  to  St. 
Louis  to  purchase  their  assortments. 

The  State  Bank  undertook  to  break  up  this  course  of  things, 
and  divert  these  advantages  to  Alton.  Godfrey  Gilman  &  Co. 
were  supplied  with  about  $800,000,  to  begin  on  the  lead  busi- 
ness. By  their  agents,  they  made  heavy  purchases  of  lead,  and 
had  it  shipped  to  Alton.  Stone,  Manning  &  Co.,  another  Alton 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  177 

firm,  were  furnished  with  several  hundred  thousand  dollars,  with 
which  to  operate  in  produce;  and  Sloo  &  Co.  obtained  large 
loans  for  the  same  purpose.   The  design  of  the  parties,  of  course 
was  not  accomplished.     Instead  of  building  up  Alton,  enriching 
ts  merchants,  and  giving  the  bank  a  monopoly  of  exchanges  on 
the  east,  these  measures  resulted  in  crushing  Alton,  annihilating 
its  merchants,  and  breaking  the  bank.   This  result  ought  to  have 
been  foreseen.     The  St.  Louis  merchants  had  more  capital  in 
business  than  ten  such  banks,  and  twenty  such  cities  as  Alton. 
They  were  intimately  connected,  either  as  owners  or  agents,  in 
all  the  steamboats  running  on  the  Illinois  and  Upper  Mississippi. 
These  boats  required  an  up-river  as  well  as  a  down-river  freight. 
The  up-river  freight  could  only  be  got  in  St.  Louis,  and  would 
not  be  furnished  to  boats  known  to  be  engaged  in  the  Alton  con- 
spiracy.    The  merchants  in  Galena  and  throughout  the  Upper 
Mississippi  and  Illinois  country,  were  connected  in  trade  with 
the  St.  Louis  merchants,  many  of  them  owing  balances  not  con- 
venient to  be  paid,  and  enjoying  standing  credits  which  could 
not  be  dispensed  with. 

The  Alton  merchants,  however,  commenced  operations  on  the 
moneys  furnished  by  the  bank,  and  they  were  so  anxious  to  ob- 
tain a  monopoly  of  purchases,  that  prices  rose  immediately. 
The  price  of  lead  rose  in  a  short  time  from  $2  75  to  $4  25  per 
hundred.     This  did  not  appear  to  be  the  best  way  of  monopo- 
lizing the  lead  trade.     Therefore,  Godfrey  Gilman  &  Co.  fur- 
nished their  agent  in  Galena  some  two  or  three  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  to  purchase  lead-mines  and  smelting  establishments. 
This  agent  was  a  manly,  frank,  honorable,  and  honest  man,  but 
wild  and  reckless  in  the  extreme.    He  bought  all  the  mines  and 
smelting  establishments  he  could  get,  and  some  lots  in  Galena. 
He  scattered  money  with  a  profuse  and  princely  hand.   The  ef- 
fect was  apparent  in  a  short  time.     Property  in  Galena  rose  in 
a  few  months  more  than  two  thousand  per  cent.     While  such 
great  exertions  were  making  to  divert  the  lead  trade  to  Alton 

8* 


178  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

and  while  such  lavish  expenditures  at  Galena  raised  its  price 
there,  they  could  not  keep  up  the  price  in  the  eastern  cities,  its 
destined  market.  The  lead  was  kept  in  store  in  New  York  a 
year  or  two,  in  hopes  the  price  would  rise.  The  owners  were 
at  last  compelled  to  sell  at  a  great  sacrifice,  and  the  operation 
ruined  all  concerned.  Stone,  Manning  &  Co.,  and  Sloo  &  Co., 
were  equally  unfortunate. 

I  think  the  bank  must  have  lost  by  all  its  Alton  operations 
near  a  million  of  dollars,  and  was  nearly  insolvent  before  the 
end  of  the  second  year  of  its  existence,  though  the  fact  was  un- 
known to  the  people.  This  is  an  example  of  the  danger  of  en- 
deavoring to  force  trade,  wholly  against  nature,  out  of  its  accus- 
tomed channels.  Let  it  be  a  warning  also  to  all  banks,  not  to 
engage,  either  by  themselves  or  by  their  agents,  in  the  ordinary 
business  of  trade  and  speculation. 

The  democrats  helped  to  make  the  banks,  but  the  whigs  con- 
trolled the  most  money,  which  gave  them  the  control  of  the 
banks.  The  president  and  a  large  majority  of  the  directors  and 
other  officers  were  whigs  ;  just  enough  of  democrats  had  been 
appointed  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  proscription.  Thus  the 
democrats  were  defeated  at  least  once  in  the  contest  for  the 
"  spoils,"  and  probably  it  will  always  be  thus  when  long  purses 
are  to  decide  who  are  the  "  victors." 

When  the  State  Bank  was  created,  its  projectors,  to  make  it 
popular,  attached  to  it  a  provision  for  a  real  estate  fund,  to  the 
amount  of  a  million  of  dollars,  to  be  lent  out  on  mortgages  of 
land.  This  was  intended  to  conciliate  the  farmers,  as  thereby 
the  bank  would  become  a  sort  of  farmers'  bank,  out  of  which 
the  farmers  could  obtain  money  on  a  mortgage  of  their  farms. 
But  this  was  really  the  worst  feature  in  the  whole  project.  At 
this  day  it  will  be  generally  acknowledged  that  no  farmer  ought 
ever  to  borrow  money  to  carry  on  his  farm.  The  only  mode 
in  which  a  farmer  can  be  benefited  by  a  bank,  is  for  merchants 
and  traders  to  borrow  money  and  pay  it  out  to  farmers  for  their 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  179 

produce.  But  very  many  farmers  did  borrow,  and  very  few  of 
them  were  able  to  pay.  Their  farms  were  taken  away  from 
them ;  and  so  this  popular  lure  to  the  farmers  operated  like  set- 
ting out  huge  steel  traps  to  catch  their  plantations. 

The  fact  that  the  presidents  and  cashiers  of  the  principal 
bank  and  branches,  and  a  very  great  majority  of  the  directors 
and  other  officers,  were  whigs,  was  sufficient  to  dub  the  bank 
a  whig  concern.  It  was  viewed  with  great  jealousy  by  the 
democrats.  Judge  Smith  headed  an  opposition  to  it ;  and  al- 
though he  had  written  the  charter,  and  urged  its  passage  upon 
his  friends  in  the  legislature,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  it 
unconstitutional.  He  was  joined  by  Judge  McRoberts,  Re- 
ceiver of  public  moneys  at  Danville,  and  many  other  leaders  of 
the  party.  The  bank  made  an  effort  to  get  the  deposits  of 
public  money,  but  it  had  become  so  odious  to  the  democrats, 
and  such  representations  had  been  made  at  Washington,  that 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  refused  its  application.  The  con- 
sequence was,  that  a  continual  run  was  made  upon  it  for  specie, 
to  enter  Government  land.  To  avoid  this  continual  drain  of 
specie,  the  bank  adopted  the  expedient  of  sending  its  notes, 
purporting  to  have  been  issued  at  one  branch,  to  be  loaned  at 
another,  and  by  this  means  keeping  its  circulation  at  a  distance 
from  the  place  of  payment. 

Here  I  will  leave  the  subject  of  the  bank  for  the  present, 
and  notice  another  important  matter  acted  upon  by  the  legis- 
lature at  the  session  of  1834-'5.  This  was  the  Illinois  and 
Michigan  canal.  As  early  as  1821,  the  legislature  appropriated 
$10,000  for  a  survey  of  the  route  of  this  canal.  Judge  Smith 
and  others  were  appointed  commissioners,  and  they  again  ap- 
pointed Rene  Paul,  of  St.  Louis,  and  Justice  Post,  now  of  Al- 
exander county,  as  engineers.  A  survey  of  the  route  was 
made.  The  work  was  reported  eminently  practicable,  and  the 
cost  of  construction  was  estimated  at  a  sum  near  six  or  seven 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  In  1826,  Congress  donated  to  the 


180  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

State  about  300,000  acres  of  land  on  the  route  of  the  canal, 
in  aid  of  the  work  In  1825,  a  law  was  passed  incorporating  a 
company  to  make  the  canal.  The  stock  was  never  subscribed. 
And  in  1828,  another  law  was  passed,  providing  for  the  sale  of 
lots  and  lands,  for  the  appointment  of  a  board  of  canal  com- 
missioners, and  for  the  commencement  of  the  work.  Nothing 
was  done  under  this  law,  except  the  sale  of  some  land  and 
lots,  and  a  new  survey  of  the  route  and  estimate  of  costs,  by 
the  new  engineer,  Mr.  Bucklin.  The  estimate  this  time  ran  into 
millions  instead  of  thousands,  but  was  yet  too  low,  as  expe- 
rience has  subsequently  demonstrated.  After  that  time  there 
were  various  projects  of  giving  the  work  to  a  company,  or  of 
making  a  railroad  instead  of  a  canal.  But  nothing  effectual  was 
proposed  to  be  done  until  the  session  of  1834-'5. 

At  this  session  of  the  legislature,  George  Forquer,  a  senator 
for  Sangamon  county,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  inter- 
nal improvements,  prepared  and  made  an  elaborate  report  in 
favor  of  a  loan  of  half  a  million  of  dollars,  on  the  credit  of  the 
State,  to  begin  with.  I  call  the  report  an  elaborate  one,  be- 
cause it  is  so  :  perhaps  more  able  than  any  similar  document 
submitted  to  any  of  the  western  legislatures.  It  contains  evi- 
dence of  vast  research,  and  abundance  of  facts  and  probable 
conjectures,  and  is  expressed  in  language  at  once  pleasing,  bril- 
liant, and  attractive.  The  report  was  accompanied  by  a  bill 
authorizing  a  loan  on  the  credit  of  the  State,  which  passed  the 
Senate,  and  would  certainly  have  passed  the  legislature,  but  for 
the  fact  that  the  governor,  in  his  general  message,  and  also  in 
a  special  message,  asserted  with  confidence  that  the  money 
could  be  obtained  upon  a  pledge  of  the  canal  lands  alone. 
Amended  in  this  particular,  the  bill  passed,  and  has  served  as 
a  model  for  all  the  subsequent  laws  on  that  subject.  The  re- 
port was  justly  liable  to  one  criticism.  The  cost  was  estimated 
too  low.  The  Senate  ordered  5,000  copies  of  it  to  be  published 
for  the  information  of  the  people.  This  was  the  first  efficient 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  181 

movement  in  favor  of  the  canal.  The  loan  under  this  law  fail- 
ed ;  but  at  a  special  session  in  1835,  a  law  was  introduced  by 
James  M.  Strode,  then  a  senator  representing  all  the  country 
including  and  north  of  Peoria,  authorizing  a  loan  of  half  a  mil- 
lion of  dollars  on  the  credit  of  the  State.  This  loan  was  nego- 
tiated by  Governor  Duncan  in  1836,  and  with  this  money  a 
commencement  was  made  on  the  canal  in  the  month  of  June  of 
that  year.  William  F.  Thornton,  Gurdon  S.  Hubbard,  and 
William  B.  Archer,  all  whigs,  were  appointed  the  first  canal 
commissioners  under  this  law. 

In  the  spring  and  summer  of  1836,  the  great  land  and  town 
lot  speculation  of  those  times  had  fairly  reached  and  spread 
over  Illinois.  It  commenced  in  this  State  first  at  Chicago,  and 
was  the  means  of  building  up  that  place  in  a  year  or  two  from 
a  village  of  a  few  houses,  to  be  a  city  of  several  thousand  in- 
habitants. The  story  of  the  sudden  fortunes  made  there,  ex- 
cited at  first  wonder  and  amazement,  next  a  gambling  spirit  of 
adventure,  and  lastly,  an  all-absorbing  desire  for  sudden  and 
splendid  wealth.  Chicago  had  been  for  some  time  only  one 
great  town  market.  The  plats  of  towns,  for  a  hundred  miles 
around,  were  carried  there  to  be  disposed  of  at  auction.  The 
eastern  people  had  caught  the  mania.  Every  vessel  coming 
west  was  loaded  with  them,  their  money  and  means,  bound  for 
Chicago,  the  great  fairy  land  of  fortunes.  But  as  enough  did 
not  come  to  satisfy  the  insatiable  greediness  of  the  Chicago 
sharpers  and  speculators,  they  frequently  consigned  their  wares 
to  eastern  markets.  Thus,  a  vessel  would  be  freighted  with 
land  and  town  lots,  for  the  New  York  and  Boston  markets,  at 
less  cost  than  a  barrel  of  flour.  In  fact,  hinds  and  town  lots 
were  the  staple  of  the  country,  and  were  the  only  articles  of 
export. 

The  example  of  Chicago  was  contagious.  It  spread  to  all 
the  towns  and  villages  of  the  State.  New  towns  were  laid  out 
in  every  direction.  The  number  of  towns  multiplied  so  rapidly, 


182  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

that  it  was  waggishly  remarked  by  many  people,  that  the  whole 
country  was  likely  to  be  laid  out  into  towns ;  and  that  no  land 
would  be  left  for  farming  purposes.  The  judgments  of  all  our 
business  men  were  unsettled,  and  their  minds  occupied  only  by 
the  one  idea,  the  all-absorbing  desire  of  jumping  into  a  fortune. 
As  all  had  bought  more  town  lots  and  lands  than  many  of  them 
could  pay  for,  and  more  than  any  of  them  could  sell,  it  was 
supposed  that  if  the  country  could  be  rapidly  settled,  its  re- 
sources developed,  and  wealth  invited  from  abroad,  that  all  the 
towns  then  of  any  note  would  soon  become  cities,  and  that  the 
other  towns,  laid  out  only  for  speculation,  and  then  without  in 
habitants,  would  immediately  become  thriving  and  populous 
villages,  the  wealth  of  all  would  be  increased,  and  the  town  lot 
market  would  be  rendered  stable  and  secure. 

With  a  view  to  such  a  consummation,  a  system  of  internal 
improvements  began  to  be  agitated  in  the  summer  and  fall  of 
1836.  It  was  argued  that  Illinois  had .  all  the  natural  advan- 
tages which  constitute  a  great  State ;  a  rich  soil,  variety  of  cli- 
mate, and  great  extent  of  territory.  It  only  wanted  inhabitants 
and  enterprise.  These  would  be  invited  by  a  system  of  im- 
provements ;  timber  would  be  carried  by  railroad  to  fence  the 
prairies ;  and  the  products  of  the  prairies,  by  the  same  means, 
would  be  brought  to  market.  The  people  began  to  hold  public 
meetings  and  pass  resolutions  on  the  subject ;  and  before  the 
next  winter,  most  of  the  counties  had  appointed  delegates  to  an 
internal  improvement  convention,  to  be  assembled  at  the  seat 
of  government.  This  body  of  delegates  assembled  at  the  same 
time  with  the  legislature  of  1836-'7.  It  devised  and  recom- 
mended to  the  legislature  a  system  of  internal  improvements ; 
the  chief  feature  of  which  was,  "  that  it  should  be  commensurate 
with  the  wants  of  the  people."  Thus  the  general  desire  of 
sudden  and  unwarrantable  gain ;  a  dissatisfaction  with  the  slow 
but  sure  profits  of  industry  and  lawful  commerce,  produced  a 
general  phrenzy.  Speculation  was  the  order  of  the  day,  and 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  183 

every  possible  means  was  hastily  and  greedily  adopted  to  give 
an  artificial  value  to  property.  In  accomplishing  this  object  as 
to  the  manner  and  means,  our  people  surrendered  their  judg- 
ments to  the  dictates  of  a  wild  imagination.  No  scheme  was 
so  extravagant  as  not  to  appear  plausible  to  some.  The  most 
wild  calculations  were  made  of  the  advantages  of  a  system  of 
internal  improvements  ;  of  the  resources  of  the  State  to  meet 
all  expenditures ;  and  of  our  final  ability  to  pay  all  indebted- 
ness without  taxation.  Mere  possibilities  appeared  highly 
probable ;  and  probability  wore  the  livery  of  certainty  itself. 

I  have  said  that  our  people  were  moved  by  these  influences ; 
but  only  those  are  meant  who  attended  these  meetings,  and 
aided  in  sending  and  instructing  delegates  to  the  internal  im- 
provement convention.  It  is  not  true  that  the  whole  people 
were  thus  moved  or  thus  acted.  These  meetings  were  generally 
held  in  the  towns,  and  mostly  attended  by  the  town  people. 
The  great  body  of  the  people  in  the  country  treated  the  subject 
with  indifference.  But  this  silence  was  taken  for  consent.  The 
voice  of  these  meetings  was  considered  as  the  voice  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  the  voice  of  the  people  as  "  the  voice  of  God,"  and 
many  of  the  members  of  the  legislature  felt  themselves  in- 
structed by  it  to  vote  for  some  system  of  internal  improve- 
ments. 

The  legislature  at  this  session  took  up  the  subject  in  full 
earnest ;  and  in  the  course  of  the  winter  passed  a  system  pro- 
viding for  railroads  from  Galena  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio ; 
from  Alton  to  Shawneetown ;  from  Alton  to  Mount  Carmel ; 
from  Alton  to  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  State,  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Terre  Haute ;  from  Quincy  on  the  Mississippi,  through 
Springfield  to  the  Wabash ;  from  Bloomington  to  Pekin ;  and 
from  Peoria  to  Warsaw;  including  in  the  whole  about  1,300 
miles  of  road.  It  also  provided  for  the  improvement  of  the 
navigation  of  the  Kaskaskia,  Illinois,  Great  and  Little  Wabash, 
and  Rock  rivers.  And  besides  this,  two  hundred  thousand 


184  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

dollars  were  to  be  distributed  amongst  those  counties  through 
which  no  roads  or  improvements  were  to  be  made.  The  legis- 
lature voted  $8,000,000  to  the  system,  which  was  to  be  raised 
by  a  loan. , 

As  a  part  of  the  system  also,  the  canal  from  Chicago  to  Peru 
was  to  be  prosecuted  to  completion,  and  a  further  loan  of  four 
millions  of  dollars  was  authorized  for  that  purpose.  The  legis- 
lature had  already  established  a  board  of  canal  commissioners. 
They  now  established  a  board  of  fund  commissioners  to  nego- 
tiate the  new  loans  for  the  railroads ;  and  a  board  of  commis- 
sioners of  public  works,  one  for  each  judicial  circuit,  then  seven 
in  number,  to  superintend  construction.  And  as  a  crowning 
act  of  folly,  it  was  provided  that  the  work  should  commence 
simultaneously  on  all  the  roads  at  each  end,  and  from  the  cross- 
ings of  all  the  rivers. 

It  is  very  obvious  now  that  great  errors  were  committed. 
It  was  utterly  improbable  that  the  great  number  of  public  offi- 
cers and  agents  for  the  faithful  prosecution  of  so  extensive  and 
cumbrous  a  system,  could  be  found  in  the  State  ;  or  if  found, 
it  was  less  likely  that  the  best  material  would  be  selected.  But 
the  legislature  went  on  to  create  a  multitude  of  officers,  for  a 
multitude  of  men,  who  were  all  to  be  engaged  in  the  expendi- 
ture of  money,  and  superintending  improvements,  as  if  there 
were  a  hundred  De  Witt  Clintons  in  the  State  ;  but  there  is  no 
limit  to  the  conceit  of  aspiring  ignorance.  Indeed,  our  past  ex- 
perience goes  far  to  show  that  it  has  not  yet  been  safe  for  Illi- 
nois, as  a  government,  to  have  any  very  complicated  or  exten- 
sive interests  to  manage,  for  the  want  of  men  to  manage  them ; 
and  for  the  want  of  an  enlightened  public  will  to  sustain  able 
and  faithful  public  servants,  and  to  hold  the  unfaithful  to  a  just 
and  strict  account.  The  legislature  were  to  elect  the  members 
of  the  board  of  public  works,  and  these  offices  were  very  near 
being  filled  by  the  election  of  members  of  the  legislature.  It 
is  true,  that  the  constitution  made  them  ineligible,  by  providing 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  185 

that  no  member  should  be  appointed  to  an  office  created  during 
the  term  for  which  he  had  been  elected.  Governor  Duncan 
announced  his  determination  not  to  commission  members  of 
the  legislature,  if  elected,  to  these  offices.  A  law  was  attempted 
to  be  passed  dispensing  with  a  commission  from  the  governor, 
although  the  constitution  provides  that  all  civil  officers  shall  be 
commissioned  by  him.  It  had  been  too  much  the  case,  in  the 
Illinois  legislature,  that  when  a  majority  were  set  upon  accom- 
plishing their  purpose,  no  constitutional  barriers  were  sufficient 
to  restrain  them.  Ingenious  reasons  were  never  wanting  to 
satisfy  the  consciences  of  the  more  timid ;  so  that  many  regret- 
ted that  there  was  any  constitution  at  all,  by  the  violation  of 
which,  members  were  forced  to  commit  perjury  to  accomplish 
their  utilitarian  views.  A  vigorous  effort  was  made  in  the  two 
houses  to  elect  members  to  these  offices  ;  but  not  quite  a  ma- 
jority could  be  obtained  in  favor  of  it.  The  joint  meeting  was 
adjourned  for  one  day,  and  on  the  next,  persons  were  elected 
who  were  not  members  of  the  legislature. 

No  previous  survey  or  estimate  had  been  made,  either  of  the 
routes,  the  costs  of  the  works,  or  the  amount  of  business  to  be 
done  on  them.  The  arguments  in  favor  of  the  system  were  of 
a  character  most  difficult  to  refute,  composed  as  they  were  part- 
ly of  fact,  but  mostly  of  prediction.  In  this  way  I  have  heard 
it  proved,  to  general  satisfaction,  by  an  ingenious  orator  in  the 
lobby,  that  the  State  could  well  afford  to  borrow  a  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  and  expend  it  in  making  internal  improve- 
ments. The  orators  in  favor  of  the  system  all  aimed  to  argue' 
their  way  logically,  and  the  end  has  showed,  that  the  counsels 
of  a  sound  judgment,  guided  by  common  sense,  jumping  at  con- 
clusions, are  to  be  preferred  to  ingenious  speculation.  Nothing 
is  more  delusive  in  public  affairs  than  a  series  of  ingenious  rea- 
sonings. In  this  way  John  C.  Calhoun,  in  his  report  on  the  Me- 
morial of  the  Memphis  Convention,  proved  conclusively  that  it 
is  constitutional  to  build  a  single  pier  on  the  lakes,  but  it  would 


186  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

be  unconstitutional  to  build  two  of  them  close  together,  and 
parallel,  for  then  they  would  be  a  harbor.  In  the  same  man- 
ner he  proved  it  to  be  constitutional  to  improve  the  channels 
of  the  great  Western  rivers,  but  utterly  unconstitutional  to  im- 
prove them  near  shore,  so  that  boats  could  have  a  landing ;  and 
in  the  same  manner  he  proved  that  it  was  constitutional  to  im- 
prove the  navigation  of  rivers  common  to  three  or  more  States, 
but  unconstitutional  to  improve  a  river  running  through  a  single 
State,  although  it  might  be  the  channel  of  trade  for  half  the 
nation. 

The  means  used  in  the  legislature  to  pass  the  system,  deserve 
some  notice  for  the  instruction  of  posterity.  First,  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  people  were  interested  in  the  success  of  the  canal, 
which  was  threatened,  if  other  sections  of  the  State  were  denied 
the  improvements  demanded  by  them  ;  and  thus  the  friends  of 
the  canal  were  forced  to  log-roll  for  that  work  by  supporting 
others  which  were  to  be  ruinous  to  the  country.  Roads  and 
improvements  were  proposed  everywhere,  to  enlist  every  sec- 
tion of  the  State.  Three  or  four  efforts  were  made  to  pass  a 
smaller  system,  and  when  defeated,  the  bill  would  be  amended 
by  the  addition  of  other  roads,  until  a  majority  was  obtained 
for  it.  Those  counties  which  could  not  be  thus  accommodated 
were  to  share  in  the  fund  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
Three  roads  were  appointed  to  terminate  at  Alton,  before  the 
Alton  interest  would  agree  to  the  system.  The  seat  of  govern- 
ment was  to  be  removed  to  Springfield.  Sangamon  county,  in 
which  Springfield  is  situated,  was  then  represented  by  two  sen- 
ators and  seven  representatives,  called  "  the  long  nine,"  all  whigs 
but  one.  Amongst  them  were  some  dexterous  jugglers  and 
managers  in  politics,  whose  whole  object  was  to  obtain  the  seat 
of  government  for  Springfield.  This  delegation,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  session,  threw  itself  as  a  unit  in  support  of,  or  op- 
position to,  every  local  measure  of  interest,  but  never  without 
a  bargain  for  votes  in  return  on  the  seat  of  government  ques- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  187 

tion.  Most  of  the  other  counties  were  small,  having  but  one 
representative,  and  many  of  them  with  but  one  for  a  whole  dis- 
trict ;  and  this  gave  Sangamon  county  a  decided  preponderance 
in  the  log-rolling  system  of  those  days,  It  is  worthy  of  exam- 
ination whether  any  just  and  equal  legislation  can  ever  be  sus- 
tained where  some  of  the  counties  are  great  and  powerful  and 
others  feeble.  But  by  such  means  "  the  long  nine"  rolled  along 
like  a  snow-ball,  gathering  accessions  of  strength  at  every  turn-, 
until  they  swelled  up  a  considerable  party  for  Springfield,  which 
party  they  managed  to  take  almost  as  an  unit  in  favor  of  the 
internal  improvement  system,  in  return  for  which  the  active 
supporters  of  that  system  were  to  vote  for  Springfield  to  be  the 
seat  of  government.  Thus  it  was  made  to  cost  the  State  about 
six  millions  of  dollars  to  remove  the  seat  of  government  from 
Vandalia  to  Springfield,  half  which  sum  would  have  purchased 
all  the  real  estate  in  that  town  at  three  prices ;  and  thus  by  log- 
rolling on  the  canal  measure,  by  multiplying  railroads,  by  ter- 
minating three  railroads  at  Alton,  that  Alton  might  become  a 
great  city  in  opposition  to  St.  Louis,  by  distributing  money  to 
some  of  the  counties,  to  be  wasted  by  the  county  commission- 
ers, and  by  giving  the  seat  of  government  to  Springfield,  was 
the  whole  State  bought  up  and  bribed,  to  approve  the  most  sense- 
less and  disastrous  policy  which  ever  crippled  the  energies  of  a 
growing  country. 

The  examples  of  Pennsylvania  and  Indiana  in  adopting  a  sim- 
ilar system  were  powerfully  urged  by  the  deluded  demagogues 
of  this  legislature,  to  delude  their  fellow  members,  and  to  quiet 
the  fears  of  the  people.  Now  was  developed  for  the  first  time 
a  principle  of  government,  or  rather  a  destiny  for  government 
to  aim  at,  which  was  to  keep  pace  with  the  grand  ideas  which 
had  seized  upon  the  people  of  other  States, — ideas  having  in 
view  not  the  improvement  of  individual  man,  by  increasing  his 
knowledge  and  power  of  thought,  but  merely  by  enriching  his 
pockets. 


188  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

It  appears  by  a  report  of  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, that  it  was  believed  that  the  people  were  expecting, 
and  anxious  for  a  system  of  internal  improvements ;  that  the 
system  would  be  of  great  utility  in  multiplying  population  and 
wealth ;  that  such  a  system  was  entirely  practicable ;  that  the 
cost  of  it  could  be  easily  guessed  at  without  previous  surveys ; 
that  even  small  sums  could  be  profitably  expended  upon  the 
rivers ;  that  estimates  for  the  railroads  could  be  ascertained  by 
analogy  and  comparison  with  similar  works  in  other  States ; 
that  the  system  would  cause  a  great  deal  of  land  to  be  entered, 
and  increase  the  land  tax,  a  part  of  which  could  go  to  form  a 
fund  to  pay  interest ;  that  the  tolls  on  parts  of  the  roads  as  fast 
as  they  were  completed  both  ways  from  the  crossings  of  rivers 
and  from  considerable  towns,  would  yield  the  interest  on  their 
cost;  that  the  water-power  made  by  improvements  on  the 
rivers,  would  rent  for  a  large  sum ;  that  lands  were  to  be  en- 
tered along  all  the  roads  by  the  State,  which  were  to  be  re-sold 
for  a  higher  price ;  that  eminent  financiers  were  to  be  elected 
fund  commissioners,  whose  high  standing  and  eminent  qualifica- 
tions were  to  reflect  credit  upon  the  State,  and  add  to  its  re- 
sources ;  and  with  all  these  resources  at  command,  that  no 
great  financial  skill  would  be  required  in  any  future  legislature 
to  provide  for  paying  the  interest  on  the  loans  and  carry  the  sys- 
tem to  completion,  without  burdening  the  people.  Such  were 
the  ingenious  devices  of  this  legislature,  in  all  of  which  they 
were  totally  mistaken,  as  experience  afterwards  proved.  Not 
a  solitary  one  of  these  propositions  has  borne  the  test  of  experi- 
ment ;  but  all  have  resulted  just  contrary  to  what  was  predict- 
ed. I  will  mention  also,  that  it  was  confidently  believed,  in 
and  out  of  the  legislature,  that  the  State  stock  to  be  issued, 
would  command  a  premium  of  10  per  cent.,  which  would  go  to 
swell  the  interest  fund ;  that  the  stock  in  the  banks  would  yield 
enough  to  pay  interest  on  the  bank  bonds  and  a  surplus  be- 
sides ;  and  that  in  fact  the  system  was  to  be  self-acting  and  self- 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  189 

sustaining  ;  to  provide  for  its  own  liquidation  and  payment,  and 
enrich  the  State  treasury  into  the  bargain. 

I  mention  these  calculations,  all  of  which  so  signally  failed ; 
all  of  which  were  once  so  confidently  believed,  but  which  now 
appear  so  absurd  and  ridiculous,  as  a  warning  to  all  theoretical, 
visionary  schemers  in  public  affairs ;  and  against  the  counsels  of 
all  impracticable,  dreaming  politicians.  Let  posterity  remem- 
ber it,  and  engrave  it  upon  their  hearts  as  a  lesson  of  wisdom, 
that  splendid  abilities  and  the  power  of  ingenious  speculation 
are  not  statesmanship ;  but  they  may  lead  a  country  to  the 
verge  of  ruin,  unless  guided  by  solid  judgment  and  plain  com- 
mon sense ;  by  which  they  are  rarely  accompanied. 

As  no  system  could  be  passed  except  by  log-rolling,  and 
without  providing  for  a  simultaneous  expenditure  of  money  all 
over  the  State,  it  followed  that  none  of  the  roads  were  ever 
completed.  Detached  parcels  of  them  were  graded  on  every 
road,  the  excavations  and  embankments  of  which  will  long  re- 
main as  a  memorial  of  the  blighting-scathe  done  by  this  legisla- 
ture ;  but  nothing  was  finished,  except  the  road  from  the  Illinois 
river  to  Springfield,  which  cost  about  $1,000,000,  and  which 
now  is  not  worth  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

I  will  here  mention  that  this  internal  improvement  law  was 
returned  by  the  Governor  and  council  of  revision,  with  their 
objections,  but  afterwards  passed  both  houses  by  the  constitu- 
tional majority.  It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  all  the  foolish  and 
ruinous  measures  which  ever  passed  an  Illinois  legislature, 
would  have  been  vetoed  by  the  governor  for  the  time  being, 
if  he  had  possessed  the  constitutional  power.  The  old  State 
Bank  of  1821,  which  ruined  the  public  finances  and  demoralized 
the  people ;  aqd  by  which  the  State  lost  in  various  ways,  more 
than  its  entire  capital,  would  have  been  vetoed  by  Governor 
Bond.  The  laws  creating  the  late  banks  and  increasing  their 
capital  by  making  the  State  a  stockholder  to  a  large  amount, 
and  the  internal  improvement  system,  would  have  been  vetoed 


190  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

by  Governor  Duncan.  In  all  these  cases  the  veto  power  would 
have  been  highly  beneficial.  I  am  aware  that  demagogues  and 
flatterers  of  the  people,  have  so  far  imitated  the  supple  parasites 
in  the  courts  of  Monarchs,  whose  maxim  is  that  the  "  king  can 
do  no  wrong,"  as  to  steal  the  compliment  and  apply  it  to  the 
people.  They  are  contending  everywhere  that  the  people  never 
err.  Without  disputing  the  infallibility  of  the  people,  we  know 
that  their  representatives  can  and  have  erred ;  and  do  err  most 
grievously.  A  qualified  veto  power  in  the  executive,  is  a  whole- 
some corrective.  It  can  only  operate  to  delay  a  good  and  pop- 
ular measure ;  for  if  the  people  desire  it  with  any  unanimity, 
they  will  select  representatives  who  will  pass  it,  notwithstand- 
ing the  veto. 

As  I  have  already  said,  the  capital  stock  of  the  State  Bank 
was  increased  this  session,  in  the  whole,  to  the  amount  of 
$3,100,000,  by  making  the  State  a  stockholder.  The  stock  of 
the  Shawneetown  Bank  was  increased  to  $1,700,000  in  all. 
The  Fund  Commissioners  were  authorized  to  subscribe  for  this 
increase  of  stock,  amounting  to  $3,400,000,  a  portion  of  which 
was  to  be  paid  for  from  the  surplus  revenues  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  residue  by  a  sale  of  State  bonds.  And  although 
the  State  was  to  have  the  majority  of  stock  in  both  banks,  yet 
were  the  private  stockholders  to  have  a  majority  of  the  direc- 
tors. The  banks  were  made  the  fiscal  agents  of  the  canal  and 
railroad  funds ;  and,  upon  the  whole,  it  was  a  mere  chance 
that  the  State  did  not  lose  its  entire  capital  thus  invested.  It 
was  supposed  that  the  State  bonds  would  sell  for  a  premium 
of  about  10  per  cent.,  which  would  go  to  swell  the  interest 
fund ;  and  that  the  dividends  upon  stock  would  not  only  pay 
the  interest  on  the  bonds,  but  furnish  a  large  surplus  to  be 
carried,  likewise,  to  the  interest  fund.  However,  when  these 
bonds  were  offered  in  market,  they  could  not  be  sold,  even  at 
par.  The  banks  were  accommodating,  and  rather  than  the 
speculation  should  fail,  they  agreed  to  take  the  bonds  at  par, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  191 

as  cash,  amounting  to  $2,665,000.  The  Bank  of  Illinois  sold 
their  lot  of  $900,000,  but  the  $1,765,000  in  bonds  disposed  of 
to  the  State  Bank,  it  is  alleged,  were  never  sold.  They  were, 
however,  used  as  bank  capital,  and  the  bank  expanded  its  busi- 
ness accordingly. 

In  the  spring  of  1837,  the  banks  throughout  the  United  States 
suspended  specie  payments.  The  banks  of  Illinois  followed 
the  example  of  others.  I  will  not  dwell  upon  the  causes  of 
this  movement,  as  they  belong  more  to  the  history  of  the  whole 
country  than  to  that  of  a  single  State.  The  charter  of  the  State 
Bank  contained  a  provision,  that  if  the  institution  refused  spe- 
cie payments  for  sixty  days  together,  it  should  forfeit  its  char- 
ter. These  banks  were  made  the  fiscal  agents  for  the  canal 
and  the  railroads.  A  large  sum  of  public  money  was  deposited 
in  them,  and  if  they  went  down,  they  would  carry  the  canal  and 
the  internal  improvement  system  hi  their  train  of  ruin.  Two 
of  the  canal  commissioners  visited  Governor  Duncan,  and  re- 
quested a  call  of  the  legislature  to  avert  the  evil.  A  special 
session  was  called  in  July.  The  governor's  message  made  a 
statement  of  the  matter,  without  any  direct  recommendation  to 
legalize  the  suspension,  and  did  recommend  a  repeal  or  classi- 
fication of  the  internal  improvement  system.  The  legislature 
did  legalize  the  suspension  of  specie  payments,  but  refused  to 
touch  the  subject  of  internal  improvements.  It  was  plain  that 
nothing  could  be  done  to  arrest  the  evil  for  near  two  years 
more.  In  the  meantime  all  considerate  persons  hoped  that  the 
public  insanity  would  subside,  that  the  people  would  wake  up 
to  reflection,  and  see  the  utter  absurdity  of  the  public  policy. 

They  were  disappointed.  Loan  after  loan  was  effected,  both 
in  Europe  and  America.  The  United  States  Bank,  then  dealing 
in  stocks,  by  which  it  was  ruined,  gave  important  aid  to  our 
negotiations.  This  bank  itself  took  some  of  the  loans,  and  lent 
its  great  credit  to  effect  others.  The  loans  made  in  America 
were  at  par,  but  those  in  Europe  were  at  9  per  cent,  discount. 


192  HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

The  banker  paid  90  cents  on  the  dollar  to  the  State,  and,  as  is 
alleged,  1  per  cent,  to  the  Fund  Commissioners,  for  brokerage. 
A  large  contract  was  made  for  railroad  iron  at  an  extravagant 
price.  The  work  continued  to  be  prosecuted  upon  all  the  im- 
provements. A  new  governor  and  new  legislature  were  to  be 
elected  in  August,  1838,  from  whose  second  sober  thoughts  re- 
lief was  to  be  expected,  unless  the  State  should  be  irretrievably 
ruined  in  the  meantime. 

At  this  election  the  question  of  the  continuance  of  the  rail- 
road system  was  but  feebly  made.  Cyrus  Edwards,  the  whig 
candidate  for  governor,  declared  himself  to  be  decidedly  in 
favor  of  it.  Thomas  Carlin,  the  democratic  candidate,  was 
charged  with  secret  hostility  to  it,  but  never  so  sufficiently  ex- 
plained his  views,  during  the  pendency  of  the  election,  that  he 
could  be  charged  with  entertaining  an  opinion  one  way  or  the 
other.  A  large  majority  of  the  legislature  was  for  the  sys- 
tem. And  although  Mr.  Carlin  was  elected  governor,  and 
most  probably  was  opposed  to  it,  yet,  finding  that  nothing 
could  be  done  with  such  a  legislature,  he  was  at  the  first  session 
forced  to  keep  silence. 

This  legislature  not  only  refused  to  repeal  or  modify  the 
system,  but  added  other  works  to  it,  requiring  an  additional 
expenditure  of  about  $800,000.  Thus  was  presented  the  spec- 
tacle of  a  whole  people  becoming  infatuated,  adopting  a  most 
ruinous  policy,  and  continuing  it  for  three  years  ;  in  fact,  until 
the  whole  scheme  tumbled  about  their  ears,  and  brought  down 
the  State  to  that  ruin  which  all  cool,  reflecting  men,  saw  from 
the  first  was  inevitable. 

A  special  session  was  again  called  in  1838-'9.  This  session 
repealed  the  system,  and  provided  for  winding  it  up.  By  this 
time  it  became  apparent  that  no  more  loans  could  be  obtained 
at  par.  The  Fund  Commissioner,  and  those  appointed  to  sell 
canal  bonds,  had  adopted  some  ingenious  expedients  for  raising 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  193 

money,  all  of  which  most  signally  failed.  Upon  the  creation 
of  the  New  York  free  banking  system,  a  demand  was  at  once 
created  for  State  stocks,  to  set  the  swindling  institutions  under 
it  in  motion.  The  law  required  a  deposit  of  State  stocks  of 
double  the  value  of  circulation  and  debt,  together  with  a  cer- 
tain per  centage  in  specie.  Our  commissioner  enabled  several 
of  these  swindling  banks  to  start,  by  advancing  Illinois  bonds 
on  a  credit,  in  hopes  that  when  the  banks  came  into  repute, 
they  would  receive  payment  in  their  notes.  These  banks  all 
failed,  I  believe,  in  a  short  time,  and  the  amount  they  received 
was  nearly  a  total  loss.  Other  State  bonds,  to  a  large  amount, 
were  left  in  various  places  on  deposit,  for  sale,  and  others  again 
freely  sold  on  a  credit,  although  the  law  required  ready  pay- 
ment in  cash  at  par.  A  large  amount  was  left  with  Wright 
&  Co.  of  London,  for  sale.  Some  half  a  million  was  sold,  and 
then  Wright  &  Co.  failed,  with  the  money  and  the  residue  of 
the  bonds  in  their  hands. 

The  residue  of  the  bonds  was  returned,  but  the  State  was  ob- 
liged to  come  in  as  a  creditor  and  share  with  others  in  their 
estate,  for  the  money  received.  The  State  received  a  few  shil- 
lings on  the  pound. 

I  do  not  attempt  to  write  a  history  of  all  the  bungling,  illegal 
and  ill-advised  negotiations  of  our  commissioners.  I  mean  to 
say  enough  to  show  that,  at  the  special  session  in  1838-'9,  the 
legislature  was  compelled  by  inevitable  necessity  to  stop  the 
system.  And  in  fact  that  nearly  the  whole  people  obstinately 
shut  their  eyes  to  the  perception  of  plain  truths,  until  these 
truths  burst  upon  them  terrible  as  an  army  with  banners. 

It  may  be  supposed  that  this  revulsion,  this  disappointment 
of  cherished  hopes,  came  upon  the  people  with  a  crushing  effect. 
It  did  so.  Nevertheless>  there  was  but  little  discontent.  The 
people  looked  one  way  and  another  with  surprise,  and  were  as- 
tonished at  their  own  folly.  They  looked  about  for  some  one 

9 


194  HISTOET  OF  ILLINOIS. 

to  blame,  but  there  was  no  one.    All  were  equally  to  be  con- 
demned. 

It  was  a  maxim  with  many  politicians,  just  to  keep  along  even 
with  the  humor  of  the  people,  right  or  wrong.  Any  measure 
was  to  be  considered  right  which  was  popular  for  the  time  be- 
ing. The  politician  felt  assured  that  if  he  supported  a  bad  meas- 
ure when  it  was  popular,  or  opposed  a  good  one  when  it  was 
unpopular,  he  would  never  be  called  to  account  for  it  by  the 
people.  It  was  believed  that  the  people  never  blame  any  one 
for  misleading  them ;  for  it  was  thought  that  they  had  too  good 
a  conceit  of  themselves  to  suspect  or  admit  that  they  could  be 
misled.  A  misleader  of  the  people,  therefore,  thought  himself 
safe,  if  he  could  give  present  popularity  to  his  measures.  In 
fact  it  is  true,  that  a  public  man  will  scarcely  ever  be  forgiven 
for  being  right  when  the  people  are  wrong.  New  contests,  for- 
ever occurring,  will  make  the  people  forget  the  cause  of  their 
resentment ;  but  their  resentment  itself,  or  rather  a  prejudice 
which  it  sinks  into,  will  be  remembered  and  felt  when  the  cause 
of  it  is  forgotten.  It  is  the  perfect  knowledge  of  this  fact  by 
politicians  which  makes  so  many  of  them  ready  to  -prostitute 
their  better  judgments  to  catch  the  popular  breeze ;  and  so  it 
will  always  be,  until  the  people  have  the  capacity  and  the  will 
to  look  into  their  affairs  more  carefully.  Any  reform  in  this 
particular  must  begin  with  the  people  themselves,  and  not  with 
politicians.  Reformation  must  work  upwards  from  the  people 
through  the  government,  and  not  from  the  politicians  down. 
For  I  still  insist,  that,  as  a  general  thing,  the  government  will 
be  a  type  of  the  people.  The  following  are  the  ayes  and  nays 
on  the  passage  of  the  internal  improvement  system  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  The  names  of  prominent  men  are  given  in 
full.  Those  in  favor  of  it  were  :  Able,  Alduch,  Atwater,  Ball, 
Barnett,  Charles,  Courtright,  Craig,  John  Crain,  John  Dough' 
erty,  John  Dawson,  Stephen  A.  Douglass,  Dunbar,  Edmondson, 
Nurean  W.  Edwards,  William  F,  Elkin,  Augustus  C,  French, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  195 

Galbreath,  Green  of  Clay,  Green  of  St.  Clair,  Hankins,  William 
W.  Happy,  Hinshaw,  John  Hog  an,  Lagow,  Leary,  Abram  Lin- 
coln, If.  F.  Linder,  Logan,  Lyons,  McCormack,  John  A.  Mc- 
Clernand,  Madden,  Morris,  Minor,  John  Moore,  Moore  of  St. 
Clair,  Morton,  Murphy  of  Perry,  Murphy  of  Vermilion,  Joseph 
Naper,  James  H.  Ralston,  Rawalt,  Reddisk,  James  Shields,  Rob- 
ert Smith,  Smith  of  Wabash,  Dan  Stone,  Stuntz,  Turley,  Qur- 
ney,  Voris,  Walker  of  Cook,  Walker  of  Morgan,  Watkins,  Wil- 
son, Wood,  and  James  Semple,  the  Speaker.  Those  opposed  to 
it  were :  Bently,  Milton  Carpenter,  Cullom,  Davis,  Dairman, 
Dollins,  Dubois,  English,  Enloe,  John  J.  Hardin,  John  Harris, 
Lane,  McCown,  William  McMartry,  William  A.  Minshall,  Adam, 
O'Neil,  Pace,  Paullen,  William  A.  Richardson,  Stuart,  Thomp- 
son, Wheeler,  Whitten,  and  Witt..  And  John  Dement  and  Wil- 
liam A.  Minshall  afterwards  voted  to  concur  in  the  amendments 
of  the  senate. 

Of  those  who  voted  for  the  measure  on  the  final  passage,  or 
by  concurring  with  the  senate,  Messrs.  Grain,  Dougherty,  Daw- 
son,  Edwards,  Elkin,  Happy,  Hogan,  Naper,  and  Minshall,  have 
been  since  often  elected  or  appointed  to  other  offices,  and  art 
yet  all  of  them  popular  men.  Hogan  was  appointed  Commis- 
sioner of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  and  run  by  his  party  for 
Congress  ;  Moore  was  elected  to  the  Senate,  and  to  be  Lieut.- 
Governor,  and  afterwards  Lieut.-Colonel  in  the  Mexican  war : 
Stone  and  Ralston  were  elected  to  be  Circuit  Judges — Ralston 
afterwards  to  be  a  Senator,  and  then  run  by  his  party  for  Con- 
gress ;  Linder  has  been  Attorney-General  and  Member  of  the 
Legislature ;  Dement  has  been  twice  appointed  Receiver  of 
Public  Moneys ;  Semple,  to  be  Charge  des  Affaires  at  New 
Grenada,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  Senator  in  Con- 
gress ;  Shields,  to  be  Auditor,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
Commisssioner  of  the  General  Land  office,  and  Brigadier- Gen- 
eral in  the  Mexican  war  ;  French  was  elected  Governor  in  Au- 
gust, 1846 ;  Lincoln  was  several  times  elected  to  the  Legisla- 


196  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

ture,  and  finally  to  Congress ;  and  Douglass,  Smith,  and  Mo- 
Clernand  have  been  three  times  elected  to  Congress,  and  Doug- 
lass to  the  United  States  Senate.  Being  all  of  them  spared 
monuments  of  popular  wrath,  evincing  how  safe  it  is  to  a  poli- 
tician, but  how  disastrous  it  may  be  to  the  country,  to  keep 
along  with  the  present  fervor  of  the  people.* 

But  the  only  hope  now  was  that  the  State  might  not  be  able 
to  borrow  the  money.  This  was  soon  taken  away ;  for  the  fund 
commissioners  succeeded  in  negotiating  a  loan  in  the  summer 
of  1837  ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  year  the  work  had  begun  at 
many  points  on  the  railroads.  The  whole  State  was  excited  to 
the  highest  pitch  of  phrenzy  and  expectation.  Money  was  as 
plenty  as  dirt.  Industry  instead  of  being  stimulated,  actually 
languished.  We  exported  nothing ;  and  everything  from  abroad 
was  paid  for  by  the  borrowed  money  expended  amongst  us. 
And  if  our  creditors  have  found  us  slow  of  payment,  they  have 
been  justly  punished  for  lending  us  the  money.  In  doing  so, 
they  disappointed  the  only  hope  of  the  cool,  reflecting  men  of 
the  State. 

At  the  same  time  the  work  was  going  on  upon  the  canal. 
The  board  of  canal  commissioners,  in  pursuance  of  law,  project- 
ed a  most  magnificent  work,  and  completed  portions  of  it  in  a 
manner  most  creditable  to  the  engineers  and  contractors.  But 
here  again  the  spirit  of  over-calculation  did  infinite  mischief. 
The  United  States  in  1826,  had  donated  about  300,000  acres  of 
land  to  this  work.  This  land  was  estimated  at  the  most  exag- 
gerated price.  It  was  thought  that  its  value  was  illimitable. 
As  the  fund  appeared  to  be  so  great,  a  very  large  and  deep 

*  These  gentlemen  have  been  excused  upon  the  ground  that  they 
were  instructed  to  vote  as  they  did,  and  that  they  had  every  right  to 
believe  that  they  were  truly  reflecting  the  will  of  their  constituents. 
But  it  appears  to  me  that  members  ought  to  resign  such  small  offices, 
to  sacrifice  a  petty  ambition,  rather  than  become  the  willing  tools  of  a 
deluded  people,  to  bring  so  much  calamity  upon,  the  country. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  197 

canal  was  projected,  to  be  fed  by  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan. 
Governor  Duncan  had  recommended  the  commencement  of  a 
steamboat  canal,  which  according  to  our  present  experience, 
would  have  cost  some  $20,000,000,  as  a  means  of  improving 
the  navigation  of  the  Illinois  river  and  rendering  its  shores 
more  healthy ;  and  confidently  relied  upon  Congress  for  addi- 
tional appropriations  of  money  or  land  to  complete  it.  Such  a 
recommendation  from  a  distinguished  source,  bewildered  and 
depraved  the  public  intellect,  and  contributed  in  no  small  de- 
gree to  form  the  inflated  and  bombastic  notions  which  led  to 
the  extravagances  of  the  internal  improvement  system.  The 
legislature  refused  to  sanction  a  steamboat  canal ;  but  neverthe- 
less projected  the  work  after  a  style  of  grandeur  far  beyond  the 
means  of  the  State.  Several  magnificent  canal  basins,  and  a 
steamboat  canal  and  basin  at  the  termination  on  the  Illinois, 
were  provided  for.  To  complete  the  whole  about  $9,000,000 
would  be  required.  This  sum,  however,  was  regarded  as  a 
mere  nothing,  when  compared  with  the  then  inflated  ideas  of 
the  value  of  the  canal  lands.  At  the  session  of  1837,  there 
were  already  great  complaints  of  mismanagement  on  the  parts 
of  the  banks ;  committees  were  appointed  to  examine  them,  but 
the  examination  resulted  in  no  discovery  of  any  importance.  The 
only  thing  worthy  to  be  remembered  concerning  it,  is  that  one 
of  the  committee  to  examine  the  Shawneetown  Bank,  after  his 
return,  being  asked  what  discoveries  he  had  made,  verbally  re- 
ported that  he  had  seen  plenty  of  good  liquor  in  the  bank,  and 
sugar  to  sweeten  it  with. 

But  to  return  to  the  internal  improvement  system.  The 
fund  commissioners,  by  taking  from  the  principal  sums  bor- 
rowed, managed  to  pay  interest  on  the  State  debt  until  the 
meeting  of  the  legislature  in  1840.  During  the  interim  be- 
tween the  fall  of  the  system  and  this  meeting  there  was  a  terri- 
ble contest  between  the  whigs  and  the  democrats,  for  a  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  Gen.  Harrison  was  the  candidate 


198  HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS. 

on  one  side,  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  on  the  other.  Nothing  was 
heard  in  this  contest  but  United  States  Bank,  sub-treasury,  tariff, 
free  trade,  patriots,  friends  of  the  country,  spoilsmen,  gold 
spoons,  English  carriages,  extravagance,  defalcations,  petticoat- 
heroes,  aristocrats,  coons,  log-cabins,  and  hard  cider.  Not  one 
word  of  our  local  affairs.  Thus  was  substituted  in  the  public 
mind  one  species  of  insanity  for  another,  which  had  worn  out ; 
and  thus  it  was  that  both  parties  cheated  themselves  into  a  for- 
getfulness  of  the  dreadful  condition  of  the  State.  For  previous 
to  the  explosion  of  the  internal  improvement  system,  a  debt 
had  been  contracted  for  that  and  the  canal  of  $14,237,348,  not 
counting  the  debt  to  the  school  fund,  or  for  deposits  of  surplus 
revenues ;  all  of  which  was  to  be  paid  by  a  population  of  478,- 
929,  according  to  the  State  census  of  1840. 

And  here  is  a  proper  place  for  some  further  account  of  politi- 
cal parties.  In  their  origin,  such  parties  seem  to  be  founded 
partly  in  the  nature  of  man,  and  much  upon  artifice.  There  is 
undoubtedly  a  difference  in  the  mental  and  physical  constitu- 
tion of  men,  inclining  them  one  way  or  the  other  in  political  af- 
fairs. Some  distrust  the  people,  others  confide  in  their  capaci- 
ty for  self-government.  Some  prefer  a  quiet  government,  others 
a  stormy  turbulence.  The  condition  of  men,  also,  has  much  to 
do  with  party  ;  some  are  poor  and  lowly  as  to  property,  but 
proud  in  their  hearts ;  others  rich  and  well-born,  with  a  power 
to  make  their  pride  felt  by  others.  Some  are  ignorant  and 
feeble-minded,  others  shrewd  and  intelligent ;  some  are  rough 
and  ill-bred,  others  polished  and  graceful.  In  a  word,  some 
have  superior  advantages,  which  create  them  into  a  caste  of 
their  own.  That  portion  enjoying  these  superior  advantages, 
are  apt  to  look  down  upon  their  less-gifted  fellow-citizens  with 
contempt  or  indifference ;  and  to  feel  that  as  they  are  superior 
in  some  respects,  they  ought  to  be  in  all.  They  can  have  but 
little  patience  with  the  idea  that  the  rabble  is  to  govern  the 
country.  The  people  in  humble  condition  look  up  to  them 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  199 

with  resentment  and  dete?!  ation.  These  remarks  are  not  in- 
variably  true  of  either  side,  but  it  will  be  accorded  to  me  that 
almost  every  neighborhood  has  some  one  richer  than  the  rest, 
who  puts  on  airs  of  importance,  and  manifests  such  a  want  of 
sympathy  with  his  fellows,  as  to  disgust  his  humbler  neighbors ; 
amongst  whom  there  are  those  who,  full  of  ill-nature,  look  upon 
such  pretensions  with  envious  resentment.  These  little  big 
men,  on  both  sides,  of  the  neighborhood  sort,  are  apt  to  feel  the 
most  thorough  hatred  for  each  other ;  their  malice  often  supply- 
ing the  place  of  principle  and  patriotism.  They  think  they  are 
devoted  to  a  cause,  when  they  only  hate  an  opponent ;  and  the 
more  thoroughly  they  hate,  the  more  thoroughly  are  they  par- 
tisans. Here  originates  the  hostility  between  democracy  and 
aristocracy,  as  it  is  said  to  exist  in  this  country ;  and  here  origin- 
ates the  feeling  of  proscription,  which  is  more  violent  amongst 
mere  neighborhood  politicians,  men  who  never  expect  an  office, 
than  among  politicians  who  have  risen  to  distinction.  The  em- 
inent politicians  on  each  side  frequently  feel  a  liberality,  per- 
sonally to  an  adversary,  which  cannot  be  manifested  without 
losing  the  confidence  of  their  humbler  friends. 

And  this  state  of  things  are  kept  up  by  the  party  newspapers 
on  each  side,  the  editors  of  which  well  know  that  their  most 
profitable  harvest  is  during  an  excited  contest.  Newspapers 
are  then  more  sought  for  and  read ;  and  then  it  is  that  an  ed- 
itor's funds  best  support  him  with  money  and  patronage.  It 
may  be  said  with  truth  that  a  partisan  editor  is  a  continual 
candidate  for  the  favor  of  his  party ;  for  which  reason,  it  is  his 
interest  to  make  political  contests  interminable.  The  great 
mass  of  the  people,  who  take  newspapers  at  all,  generally  con- 
tent themselves  with  one  political  paper  of  their  own  party. 
This  and  no  other,  except  in  the  towns,  they  read  from  week 
to  week,  and  from  year  to  year,  until  they  become  thoroughly 
enlisted  in  all  the  quarrels  of  the  editor,  and  imbued  with  all 
his  malice  and  prejudice ;  and  thus  they  become  bound  up  in 


200  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  most  ill-natured,  narrow-minded,  pedantic  conceits;  fully 
convinced  that  their  way,  and  no  other,  is  right,  and  that  all 
persons  of  the  opposite  party  know  it  to  be  so.  They  feel 
assured  that  their  political  opponents,  and  particularly  those  of 
them  who  are  elected  to  office,  are  a  set  of  insufferable  rogues, 
bent  upon  the  enslavement  of  the  people,  or  the  ruin  of  the 
country.  The  rascality  of  the  whigs,  in  the  opinion  of  the  dem- 
ocrats, is  to  end  in  enslaving  the  people,  or  to  transfer  the  gov- 
ernment to  some  foreign  power ;  and  the  rascality  of  the  dem- 
ocrats, in  the  opinion  of  the  whigs,  is  to  ruin  the  country.  It 
is  probably  true  that  in  something  like  this,  is  the  natural  dif- 
ference, founded  upon  which  parties  will  continue  to  be  built, 
and  that  all  efforts  to  get  up  third  parties,  not  founded  upon 
this  difference,  and  all  efforts  to  make  new  and  merely  tem- 
porary issues  the  permanent  foundation  of  party,  must  be 
abortive. 

Some  men  are  attached  to  one,  and  some  to  the  other  party, 
from  conviction,  interest,  or  the  prejudices  of  education.  I  have 
already  said  that  there  was  no  question  of  principle,  such  as 
now  divides  parties,  involved  in  the  first  election  of  Gen.  Jack- 
son. I  speak  only  of  Illinois.  But  as  the  measures  of  Gen. 
Jackson's  administration  were  unfolded,  it  was  discovered  that 
he  favored  the  doctrines  of  the  old  republican  party.  His  at- 
tack upon  the  United  States  Bank,  his  veto  of  its  charter  in 
1832,  removal  of  the  deposits  in  1833,  the  expunging  resolu- 
tions, and  the  specie  circular,  rallied  all  to  his  party  who  were 
of  a  nature  to  be  hostile  to  the  power  of  wealth.  This  is  not  to 
say  that  all  wealthy  men  were  excluded  from,  or  all  poor  ones 
included  in  the  democratic  party.  Many  wealthy  persons  still 
remained  democrats  from  principle,  interest,  or  ambition ;  and 
many  poor  men  attached  themselves  to  the  opposite  party  for 
like  reasons.  There  is  a  class  of  the  poor,  over  whom  it  is 
natural  for  the  wealthy  to  exercise  an  influence ;  this  class  most 
generally  lack  the  boldness  and  vigor  to  think  and  feel  for 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  201 

themselves.  Some  are  attached  to  the  "  rich  and  well-born," 
on  account  of  their  accomplishments  and  virtues,  and  others 
find  it  their  interest  to  adhere  to  them.  And  there  is  always  a 
class  of  wealthy  men,  who  from  pure  benovolence,  or  from  the 
love  of  the  importance  their  wealth  gives  them  as  leaders,  at- 
tach themselves  to  the  democracy.  The  Jackson  party  had 
long  called  themselves  democrats ;  the  other  party  called  them- 
selyes  democratic  republicans.  The  democrats  began  to  call 
their  opponents  federalists ;  and  these  opponents,  in  1833  or  '4, 
began  to  call  themselves  whigs,  a  popular  name  of  the  rev- 
olution. The  whigs,  to  be  even  with  the  democrats  for  call- 
ing them  federalists,  which  they  greatly  resented,  about  the 
year  1837  gave  to  the  democrats  the  name  of  locofocos,  which 
they  have  persisted  in  calling  the  democrats  ever  since.  The 
whigs,  knowing  the  influence  of  mere  words  in  all  human  affairs, 
gave  this  uncouth  name  to  the  democrats,  in  hopes  thereby  to 
make  them  ashamed  of  it,  disavow  it,  and  prefer  the  name  of 
whig.  It  has  had  no  effect  whatever  on  elections;  but  the 
whigs  still  keep  it  up,  as  if  it  had  a  power  in  it  to  blister  and 
destroy,  and  no  consideration  on  earth  can  induce  them  to  re- 
linquish it.  In  all  this,  there  are  just  two  things  which  are 
remarkable.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  whigs,  by  the  mere  in- 
fluence of  the  newspapers,  without  any  open  agreement,  have 
from  one  end  of  the  Union  to  the  other,  adopted  this  name  for 
their  opponents,  and  have -adhered  to  it  now  for  nine  years  as 
the  only  name  by  which  their  opponents  shall  be  known ;  and 
it  is  remarkable  that  the  democratic  party  should  have  no 
squeamish  men  in  its  ranks,  to  run  away  from,  or  be  disgusted 
with  a  party  having  so  uncouth  a  name. 

Our  old  way  of  conducting  elections  required  each  aspirant 
for  office  to  announce  himself  as  a  candidate.  The  more  pru- 
dent, however,  always  first  consulted  a  little  caucus  of  select, 
influential  friends.  The  candidates  then  travelled  around  the 
county  or  State,  in  proper  person,  making  speeches,  conversing 

9* 


202 

with  the  people,  soliciting  votes,  whispering  slanders  against 
their  opponents,  and  defending  themselves  against  the  attacks 
of  their  adversaries.  But  it  was  not  always  best  to  defend 
against  such  attacks.  A  candidate,  in  a  fair  way  to  be  elected, 
should  never  deny  any  charge  made  against  him ;  for  if  he 
does,  his  adversaries  will  prove  all  they  have  said,  and  much 
more.  As  a  candidate  did  not  offer  himself  as  the  champion 
of  any  party,  he  usually  agreed  with  all  opinions,  and  promised 
everything  demanded  by  the  people  ;  and  most  usually  prom- 
ised, either  directly  or  indirectly,  his  support  to  all  the  other 
candidates  for  office  at  the  same  election.  One  of  the  arts  was, 
to  raise  a  quarrel  with  unpopular  men,  who  were  odious  to  the 
people ;  and  thus  try  to  be  elected  upon  the  unpopularity  of 
others,  as  well  as  upon  his  own  popularity.  These  modes  of 
electioneering  were  not  true  of  all  the  candidates,  nor  perhaps 
half  of  them,  very  many  of  them  being  gentlemen  of  first-rate 
integrity. 

After  party  spirit  arose  so  as  to  require  candidates  to  come 
out  on  party  grounds,  there  was  for  a  time  no  mode  of  concen- 
trating the  action  of  a  party.  A  number  of  candidates  would 
come  out  for  the  same  office,  on  the  same  side.  Their  party 
would  be  split  up  and  divided  between  them.  In  such  a  case, 
the  minority  party  was  almost  sure  of  success,  this  being  the 
only  case  in  which  one  is  stronger  than  many.  As  party  spirit 
increased  more  and  more,  the  necessity  of  some  mode  of  con- 
centrating the  party  strength  became  more  and  more  apparent. 
The  large  emigration  from  the  old  States,  bringing  with  it  the 
zeal  and  party  organization  in  which  it  had  been  trained  from 
infancy,  gave  a  new  impulse  to  the  consolidation  of  the  strength 
of  party.  An  attempt  at  this  was  early  made  by  the  New 
England  and  New  York  people  living  in  the  north  part  of  the 
State,  by  introducing  the  convention  system  of  nominating  can- 
didates. 

This  system  was  first  tried  in  counties  and  districts  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  203 

north ;  but,  on  account  of  the  frauds  and  irregularities  which 
first  attended  it,  small  progress  was  made  in  it  from  1832, 
when  its  introduction  was  first  attempted,  until  1840,  the  pec^ 
pie  generally  preferring  the  election  of  independent  candidates. 
In  1837,  Judge  Douglass  was  nominated  for  Congress  in  the 
Peoria  district,  and  in  the  winter  of  1837,  Col.  James  W 
Stephenson  was  nominated  by  a  State  convention  as  a  candi- 
date for  governor;  and  upon  his  inability  to  serve,  on  account 
of  sickness,  Thomas  Carlin  was  nominated  in  the  same  way  in 
the  summer  of  1838. 

At  first,  the  system  encountered  the  furious  opposition  of  the 
whigs,  who,  being  in  the  minority,  were  vitally  interested  to 
prevent  the  concentration  of  the  democratic  strength      The 
western  democrats  looked  upon  it  with  a  good  deal  of  suspicion 
A  was  considered  a  Yankee  contrivance,  intended  to  abridge 
liberties  of  the  people,  by  depriving  individuals,  on  their 
own  mere  motion,  of  the  privilege  of  becoming  candidates,  and 
depriving  each  man  of  the  right  to  vote  for  a  candidate  of  his 
own  selection  and  choice.     The  idea  of  conventions  was  first 
brought  into  the  middle  and  lower  part  of  the  State  by  Eben- 
ezer  Peck,  Esq.,  a  member  of  the  bar  at  Chicago,  a  man  of 
plausible  talents,  who  had  formerly  resided  in  Canada      He 
had  there  been  elected  to  the  provincial  parliament  by  the  lib- 
eral party,  in  opposition  to  the  ultra  monarchy  party.     But  he 
had  not  been  long  in  parliament  before  the  governor  of  Canada 
appointed  him  King's  Counsel,  in  return  for  which  favor  Mr      • 
Peck  left  his  old  friends,  to  support  the  ultra  monarchists.' 
*s  position  was  an  uneasy  one;  so,  before  long,  he  resigned 
his  offices  and  removed  to  Chicago.     Here  he  attached  him- 
lf  to  the  democratic  party,  but,  on  account  of  his  defection  in 
Canada,  anything  coming  from  him  was  viewed  with  suspicion 
and  prejudice  by  many. 


204  HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

At  a  great  meeting  of  the  lobby,  during  the  special  session 
of  1835-'6,  at  Vandalia,  Mr.  Peck  made  the  first  speech  ever 
made  in  the  lower  part  of  the  State  in  favor  of  the  convent* 
system.     He  was  answered  by  William  Jefferson  Gatewood, 
democratic  senator  from  Gallatin  county,  and  some  consu 
able  interest  was  awakened  on  the  subject  among  polit 
From  this  time  the  system  won  its  way  slowly,  and 
the  candidates  for  governor,  lieutenant  governor,  and  men 
of  Congress,  are  brought  before  the  people  by  conventions,  an, 
it  pervades  two-thirds  of  the  State  in  nominating  cand 

the  legislature.  .     ,  . 

The  system  has  some  advantages  and  disadvantages  in  tl 
country.     Those  in  favor  of  it  say  that  it  furnishes  the  only 
xnode  of  concentrating  the  action  of  a  party,  and  giving  e 
to  the  will  of  the  majority.     They  justly  urge,  that  since  t 
organization  of  parties,  the  old  system  of  electing  from  per- 
sonal preference  is  carried  into  each  party  in  the  mere  select, 
of  candidates,  which  distracts  the  harmony  of  a  party  by  11 
troducing  competition  amongst  distinguished  men  for  the 
privilege  of  becoming  candidates,  without  any  means  of  de< 
L  between  them,  except  at  the  polls.     Accordingly,  it 
strictly  true  that  where  two  or  more  men  of  the  same  party- 
are  candidates,  without  a  nomination,  they  are  apt  to  hate  each 
other  ten  times  as  intensely  as  they  do  the  prominent  men  o: 
the  opposite  party.     A  whig  is  to  be  elected  by  whigs,  a  demo- 
crat  by  democrats.     The  success  of  either  depends  upon  the 
number  and  strength  of  their  respective  parties ;  but  an  as- 
piring whig  or  democrat  has  still  to  seek  support  in  his 
party,  in  opposition  to  his  own  prominent  political  friends 
L  a  canvass  of  his  merits  as  a  man.     Such  being  the  case,  it 
is  not  likely  that  the  ambitious  men  of  the  same  party,  who 
are  excited  against  each  other  by  mere  personal  coi 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  205 

decline  in  favor  of  others,  so  as  to  have  but  a  single  candidate 
for  the  same  office  in  the  same  party.  Without  a  nomination, 
a  party  may  be  greatly  in  the  majority,  but  by  being  divided 
on  men,  the  minority  may  succeed  in  the  elections,  and  actually 
govern  the  majority.  To  remedy  this  evil,  it  was  proposed  by 
conventions  of  delegates,  previously  elected  by  the  people,  to 
provide  but  a  single  set  of  candidates  for  the  same  party.  It 
was  also  urged  by  some,  that  these  bodies  would  be  composed 
of  the  best-informed  and  principal  men  of  a  party,  and  would 
be  more  competent  than  the  people  at  large,  to  select  good 
men  for  candidates.  This  body  to  the  people,  would  be  like  a 
grand  jury  to  a  circuit  court.  As  the  court  would  have  no 
power  to  try  any  one  for  crime  without  a  previous  indictment 
by  the  grand  jury,  so  the  people  would  have  no  right  to  elect 
any  one  to  office  without  a  nomination  by  a  convention.  In  the 
one  case  innocent  men  could  not  be  publicly  accused  and  tried 
for  crime,  without  a  private  examination  of  their  guilt,  and  es- 
tablishing a  probability  of  its  existence  ;  so  the  people  would 
be  restrained  from  electing  any  one  to  office  without  a  previous 
nomination  of  a  body  more  fitted  to  judge  of  his  qualifications. 
The  convention  system  was  said  to  be  a  salutary  restraint 
upon  universal  suffrage,  compelling  the  people  to  elect  men  of 
standing,  who  alone  could  be  nominated  by  conventions. 

On  the  other  side,  it  was  urged,  that  the  whole  convention 
system  was  a  fraud  on  the  people  ;  that  it  was  a  mere  fungus 
growth  engrafted  upon  the  constitution ;  that  conventions  them- 
selves were  got  up  and  packed  by  cunning,  active,  intriguing  poli- 
ticians, to  suit  the  wishes  of  a  few.  The  mode  of  getting  them  up, 
was  for  some  active  man  to  procure  a  few  friends  in  each  precinct 
of  a  county,  to  hold  primary  meetings,  where  delegates  were 
elected  to  county  conventions,  who  met  at  the  county  seats,  and 
nominated  candidates  for  the  legislature  and  for  county  offices ; 
and  appointed  other  delegates  to  district  and  $tate  conventions, 
to  nominate  candidates  for  Congress  and  for  governor.  The  great 


206  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

difficulty  was  in  the  primary  meetings  in  the  precincts.  In  the 
Eastern  States,  where  conventions  "originated,  they  had  town- 
ship governments,  little  democracies,  where  the  whole  people 
met  in  person  at  least  once  a  year,  to  lay  taxes  for  roads  and 
for  the  support  of  schools  and  the  poor.  This  called  the  whole 
people  of  a  township  together,  enlightened  their  minds  and  ac- 
customed them  to  take  a  lively  interest  in  their  government ; 
and  whilst  assembled  they  could  and  did  elect  their  delegates  to 
conventions.  In  this  mode  a  convention  reflected  the  will  of  a 
party,  as  much  as  the  legislature  reflected  the  will  of  the  whole 
people.  But  how  is  it  in  Illinois  ?  We  had  no  township  gov- 
ernments, no  occasions  for  a  general  meeting  of  the  people,  ex- 
cept at  the  elections  themselves  ;  the  people  did  not  attend  the 
primary  meetings ;  a  few  only  assembled,  who  were  nearest  the 
places  of  meeting,  and  these  were  too  often  mere  professional 
politicians,  the  loafers  about  the  towns,  who  having  but  little 
business  of  their  own,  were  ever  ready  to  attend  to  the  affairs 
of  the  public.  This  threw  the  political  power  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  people,  merely  because  they  would  not  exercise  it,  into  the 
hands  of  idlers — of  a  few  active  men,  who  controlled  them.  If 
any  one  desired  an  office,  he  never  thought  of  applying  to  the 
people  for  it ;  but  passed  them  by,  and  applied  himself  to  con- 
ciliate the  managers  and  idlers  about  the  towns,  many  of  whom 
could  only  be  conciliated  at  an  immense  sacrifice  of  the  public 
interest.  It  is  true  that  a  party  had  the  reserved  right  of  rebel- 
lion against  all  this  machinery  ;  no  one  could  be  punished  for 
treason  in  so  doing,  otherwise  than  by  losing  the  favor  of  his 
party,  and  being  denounced  as  a  traitor ;  which  was  almost  as 
efficacious  in  restraining  the  refractory  as  the  pains  and  penal- 
ties of  treason,  the  hanging  and  embowelling  of  former  times. 

My  own  opinion  of  the  convention  system  is,  that  it  can  never 
be  perfect  in  Illinois,  without  the  organization  of  little  township 
democracies,  such  as  are  found  in  New  York  and  New  England ; 
that  in  a  State  where  the  people  are  highly  intelligent,  and  not 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  207 

indifferent  to  public  affairs,  it  will  enable  the  people  themselves 
to  govern,  by  giving  full  e'ffect  to  the  will  of  the  majority  ;  but 
among  a  people  who  are  either  ignorant  of  or  indifferent  to  the 
affairs  of  their  government,  the  convention  system  is  a  most  ad- 
mirable contrivance  to  enable  active  leaders  to  govern  without 
much  responsibility  to  the  people. 

By  means  of  the  convention  system,  and  many  exciting  con- 
tests, the  two  parties  of  whigs  and  democrats  were  thoroughly 
organized  and  disciplined  by  the  year  1840.  No  regular  army 
could  have  excelled  them  in  discipline.  They  were  organized 
upon  the  principles  of  national  politics  only,  and  not  in  any  de- 
gree upon  those  of  the  State.  The  first  effect  of  this  seemed  to 
be,  that  all  ideas  of  State  rights,  State  sovereignty,  State  policy 
and  interests,  as  party  questions,  were  abolished  out  of  men's 
minds.  Our  ancestors  had  greatly  relied  upon  the  organization 
of  State  sovereignties,  as  checks  to  anti-republican  tendencies, 
and  national  consolidation.  For  this  purpose,  all  the  State  con- 
stitutions, Illinois  amongst  the  rest,  had  declared,  that  no  person 
holding  an  office  under  the  United  States  should  hold  an  office 
under  the  State  government.  The  object  of  this  was,  to  sever 
all  dependence  of  the  State  upon  the  national  government.  It 
was  not  permitted  the  President  to  appoint  the  officers  of  the 
State  governments,  for  this  would  at  once  lay  the  State  govern- 
ments at  the  feet  of  the  President.  But  if  the  State  officers 
were  not  appointed  by  the  President,  they  were  elected  upon  a 
principle  which  made  them,  if  belonging  to  his  political  friends, 
as  subservient  to  his  will  as  if  he  had  appointed  them.  The 
President  was  the  leader  of  his  party  in  the  nation,  and  there 
was  no  principle  of  party  in  the  State  but  this.  Men  were 
elected  to  office  upon  the  popularity  of  the  President,  and  upon 
the  principles  which  the  President  put  forth ;  and  they  were 
thus  compelled,  in  self-defence,  to  support  and  defend  him, 
through  good  and  evil,  right  or  wrong,  as  much  as  if  they  owed 
their  offices  to  his  gift.  Besides  this,  their  parties  absolutely 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

required  them  to  do  so.  It  may  be  remarked  here  as  a  curious 
fact,  that  the  politicians  all  over  the  nation,  pretending  to  be 
most  hi  favor  of  State  rights  and  State  sovereignty,  have  con- 
tributed most  to  overthrow  them,  by  forever  insisting  upon  the 
organization  of  parties,  purely  upon  national  questions. 

This  dependence  of  State  upon  national  politics,  and  the  ex- 
clusive devotion  of  State  politicians  to  national  questions,  was 
the  true  cause  why  so  little  attention  was  paid  to  the  policy  of 
the  State.  These  remarks  are  equally  applicable  to  both  poli- 
tical parties.  But  it  is  as  necessary  that  the  affairs  of  the  United 
States  should  be  attended  to  by  the  people  as  those  of  the  State, 
and  the  misfortunes  which  a  neglect  of  affairs  at  home  has 
caused,  may  possibly  have  been  the  price  of  government  in  the 
nation. 

A  new  legislature  was  elected  in  1840,  which,  although  they 
were  chosen  under  the  influence  of  the  presidential  election  of 
that  year,  were  obliged  to  think  somewhat  upon  the  public  con- 
dition. The  fund  commissioners  stated  the  difficulty  of  meeting 
the  January  interest  of  1841.  As  yet  the  canal  had  not  wholly 
stopped,  and  the  canal  men  were  interested  to  keep  up  the 
credit  of  the  State ;  and  something  desperate  must  be  done  for 
that  purpose. 

The  canal  contractors  had  taken  their  jobs  when  all  prices 
were  high.  By  the  fall  of  prices,  they  could  make  a  large  profit 
on  their  work,  and  lose  twenty-five  per  cent.  They,  therefore, 
had  agreed  to  take  a  million  of  State  bonds  at  par,  in  payment 
of  their  estimates.  Gen.  Thornton  was  deputed  to  go  to  Europe 
with  the  bonds,  and  sell  them  for  what  they  would  bring,  not 
less  than  seventy-five  per  cent.;  the  contractors  suffering  the 
loss.  This  they  could  well  afford  to  do ;  and  by  this  expedient 
the  work  on  the  canal  had  been  continued,  long  after  that  on 
the  railroads  had  been  abandoned.  The  canal  was  not  yet 
looked  upon  as  dead,  and  a  great  effort  was  to  be  made  to  raise 
the  means  to  keep  it  in  life,  and  sustain  the  credit  of  the  State, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  209 

without  which  it  was  known  that  the  canal  would  not  live  an 
hour. 

The  time  was  short,  only  six  weeks  until  the  interest  would 
become  due ;  and  many  expedients  were  proposed  to  raise  the 
money ;  but  the  one  which  met  most  general  favor,  was  a  new 
issue  of  bonds  to  be  hypothecated  for  whatever  they  would 
bring  in  market.  This  was  a  desperate  remedy,  and  showed 
the  zeal  of  the  legislature  in  sustaining  the  public  honor.  It 
proposed  a  plan  of  raising  money,  which,  if  pursued  as  the  set- 
tled policy  of  the  State,  must  end  in  utter  ruin.  Nevertheless, 
it  was  but  feebly  opposed  on  this  ground.  The  principal  ground 
of  opposition  was  an  objection  to  paying  interest  at  all ;  and 
particularly  to  paying  interest  upon  bonds,  for  which  the  State 
had  received  nothing,  or  less  than  par.  Now  was  heard  for  the 
first  time,  any  very  earnest  complaints  against  the  acts  of  the 
fund  commissioners,  in  selling  bonds  on  a  credit,  and  for  less 
than  their  face ;  and  it  was  seriously  and  earnestly  contended, 
first,  that  the  State  was  hopelessly  insolvent,  that  any  effort  to 
pay  would  be  ridiculous  and  futile,  and  secondly,  that  the  State 
was  not  bound  to  pay  interest  on  more  money  than  had  been 
actually  received.  An  amendment  to  this  effect  was  offered, 
and  strenuously  insisted  on. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  insisted  with  reason,  that  the  State 
was  bound  to  do  everything  in  its  power  to  meet  its  engage- 
ments ;  that  if  bonds  had  been  erroneously  issued,  it  had  been 
done  by  the  State  agents,  selected  and  chosen  by  the  State  it- 
self; for  whose  conduct  the  State  must  be  responsible.  It  was 
admitted,  that  if  such  bonds  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  orig- 
inal purchasers,  as  to  them  the  State  would  be  entitled  to  a 
deduction  for  money  not  actually  received.  But  it  was  as 
earnestly  contended,  that  if  such  bonds  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  bonajide  holders,  who  were  no  parties  to  the  original 
deficiency  of  consideration,  the  State  was  liable  in  equity,  as 
well  as  at  law,  to  pay  the  face  of  the  bond.  There  seems  to  be 


210  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 


an  obvious  propriety  in  this  view  of  the  case.  Because  the 
bonds  were  issued  by  State  agents,  appointed  by  the  State,  not 
by  its  creditors.  The  constituted  authorities  of  the  State  ought 
to  have  chosen  better  men  for  public  trusts ;  and  if  they  did  not 
do  so,  the  State  is  justly  responsible  for  their  blunders.  It 
seems  to  be  a  principle  of  law,  as  well  as  of  equity,  that  if  the 
State  selects  bad  men,  or  those  who  are  incompetent  to  act  as 
its  agents,'  the  State  thus  abusing  its  power,  and  not  individuals 
who  had  no  hand  in  their  appointment,  ought  to  suffer  the  con- 
sequences of  its  folly,  or  want  of  devotion  to  its  own  interests. 
This  doctrine,  if  established,  will  be  a  lesson  to  the  people,  and 
teach  them  to  be  considerate  and  careful  in  electing  their  public 
servants. 

These  conflicting  opinions  were  near  preventing  any  action 
on  the  subject  at  this  session.  At  last,  Mr.  Cavarly,  a  member 
from  Greene,  introduced  a  bill  of  two  sections,  authorizing  the 
fund  commissioner  to  hypothecate  internal  improvement  bonds 
to  the  amount  of  $300,000,  and  which  contained  the  remarkable 
provision,  that  the  proceeds  were  to  be  applied  by  that  officer 
to  the  payment  of  all  interest  legally  due  on  the  public  debt. 
Thus  shifting  from  the  General  Assembly,  and  devolving  on 
the  fund  commissioner,  the  duty  of  deciding  on  the  legality  of 
the  debt.  And  by  this  happy  expedient  conflicting  opinions 
were  reconciled,  without  direct  action  on  the  matter  of  contro- 
versy ;  and  thus  the  two  houses  were  enabled  to  agree  upon  a 
measure  to  provide  temporarily  for  the  payment  of  the  interest 
on  the  public  debt.  The  legislature  further  provided  at  this 
session  for  the  issue  of  interest  bonds,  to  be  sold  in  the  market 
for  what  they  would  bring ;  and  an  additional  tax  of  ten  cents 
on  the  hundred  dollars  worth  of  property  was  imposed  and 
pledged  to  pay  the  interest  on  these  bonds.  By  these  contriv- 
ances the  interest  for  January  and  July,  1841,  was  paid.  The 
fund  commissioner  hypothecated  internal  improvement  bonds 
for  the  money  first  due ;  and  his  successor  in  office,  finding  no 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  211 

sale  for  Illinois  stocks,  so  much  had  the  credit  of  the  State  fallen, 
was  compelled  to  hypothecate-  $804,000  of  interest  bonds  for 
the  July  interest ;  on  this  hypothecation  he  was  to  have  received 
$321,600,  but  was  never  paid  more  than  $261,500.  These 
bonds  have  never  been  redeemed  from  the  holders,  though 
eighty  of  them  were  afterwards  repurchased,  and  $315,000  of 
them  were  received  from  the  Shawneetown  Bank  for  State  stock 
in  that  institution. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Reform  of  the  Supreme  Court — Chief  Justice  Wilson — Justices  Lockwood  and  Brown — 
Secretary  of  State  and  alien  questions — Alexander  P.  Field — John  A.  McClernand 
— Decision  of  the  Supreme  Court— Popular  excitement— Decision  of  a  Circuit  Judge 
on  the  alien  question — Commotion  among  the  Democrats — Suspicions  of  the  Supreme 
Court — Mode  of  deciding  political  questions — Mode  of  reforming  the  Court — Vio- 
lence of  the  measure — Reluctance  of  some  Democrats — Obstinacy  of  others — How 
a  politician  must  work  in  a  party — Judge  Douglass'  speech  in  the  lobby — Evasive 
decision  of  the  Court — Judge  Smith's  intrigues  and  character — Passage  of  the  bill — 
Motives  of  both  parties — Prejudice  against  the  Supreme  Court — Moral  power  with 
the  people  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  and  Circuit  Courts— Breaking  of  the  banks 
— Causes  which  lead  to  it— Bank  suspensions — Power  of  the  State  Bank  over  the 
Legislature — Special  session— Struggle  to  forfeit  the  Bank  Charters— Whigs  secede 
— Call  of  the  House — Jumping  out  of  the  windows — Democratic  victory — Thrown 
away  before  the  end  of  the  session — New  suspensions— Small  bills — Fierceness  of 
parties  against  each  other — Views  of  both  parties  concerning  banking,  and  of  each 
other. 

THERE  were  other  measures  of  great  interest  to  the  people 
which  came  before  the  legislature  of  1840,  the  principal  of 
which  was  a  bill  to  reform  the  Judiciary. 

The  people  of  the  State,  at  the  election  of  1840,  had  sustain- 
ed Mr.  Van  Buren,  the  democratic  candidate  for  President,  and 
both  branches  of  the  legislature  were  largely  of  the  same  party. 
The  majority  of  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court  were  whigs. 
Judge  Smith  was  the  only  democratic  member  of  the  court, 
whilst  Chief  Justice  Wilson,  and  his  associates  Lockwood  and 
Brown,  were  of  the  minority  party.  It  is  due  to  truth  here  to 
say,  that  Wilson  and  Lockwood  were  in  every  respect  amiable 
and  accomplished  gentlemen  in  private  life,  and  commanded  the 
esteem  and  respect  of  all  good  men  for  the  purity  of  their  con- 
duct and  their  probity  in  official  station.  Wilson  was  a  Virgin- 
ian of  the  old  sort,  a  man  of  good  education,  sound  judgment, 
and  an  elegant  writer,  as  his  published  opinions  will  show. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  213 

Lock-wood  was  a  New-Yorker.  He  was  an  excellent  lawyer,  a 
man  of  sound  judgment,  and  his  face  indicated  uncommon  pur- 
ity, modesty,  and  intelligence,  together  with  energy  and  strong 
determination.  His  face  was  the  true  index  of  his  character. 
Brown  was  a  fine,  large,  affable,  and  good-looking  man,  a  toler- 
able share  of  tact  and  good  sense,  a  complimentary,  smiling 
and  laughing  address  to  all  men,  and  had  been  elected  and  con- 
tinued in  office  upon  the  ground  that  he  was  believed  to  be  a 
clever  fellow.  Two  great  political  questions  had  been  brought 
before  this  court,  one  of  which  they  decided  contrary  to  the 
views  and  wishes  of  the  democratic  party,  and  the  other  ques- 
tion was  yet  pending,  but  it  was  believed  would  be  decided  in 
the  same  way. 

These  were  the  questions :  When  Governor  Carlin  was  elect- 
ed in  1838,  he  claimed  the  power  to  appoint  a  new  Secretary 
of  State.  Alexander  P.  Field  was  the  old  Secretary.  He  had 
been  appointed  by  Governor  Edwards  ten  years  before,  and  had 
been  continued  in  office  without  any  new  appointment  under 
both  Reynolds  and  Duncan.  He  was  a  whig,  and  Gov.  Carlin 
was  a  democrat ;  and  as  the  Secretary  of  State  is  not  only  a 
public  officer,  but  a  sort  of  confidential  helper  and  adviser  of  the 
executive,  Gov.  Carlin  claimed  the  right  of  selecting  this  officer 
for  himself,  and  from  his  own  party.  The  governor  nominated 
to  the  senate  Mr.  McClernand  of  Gallatin  county.  The  whigs 
of  the  senate,  and  some  democrats,  enough  to  constitute  the  ma- 
jority, decided  that  the  tenure  of  the  office  might  be  defined  and 
limited  by  the  legislature,  but  that  until  they  did  so  the  Secre- 
tary could  not  be  removed  and  a  new  one  appointed.  The  gov- 
ernor and  his  friends  contended  that  he  had  the  power  of  re- 
moval and  appointment  at  all  times,  to  be  exercised  at  his  dis- 
cretion. The  governor  made  five  or  six  different  nominations, 
all  of  which  were  rejected  by  the  senate. 

After  the  legislature  adjourned,  the  governor  again  appointed 
Mr.  McClernand,  who  demanded  the  office  of  the  old  Secretary 


214  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

of  State,  and  was  refused.  Mr.  McClernand  then  sued  out  his 
writ,  to  try  his  right  to  the  office.  The  question  was  taken  to 
the  supreme  court,  and  decided  against  him  by  Wilson  and 
Lock  wood ;  Judge  Smith  dissenting,  and  Judge  Brown  giving 
no  opinion,  on  account  of  relationship  to  Mr.  McClernand.  This 
at  the  time  was  supposed  to  be  a  great  question.  The  ablest 
counsel  in  the  State  were  employed,  and  the  decision  of  the 
judge  is  elaborated  to  such  a  degree,  as  to  show  their  opinion 
of  its  consequences.  The  decision  raised  a  great  flame  of  excite- 
ment, and  the  democrats  contended  that  the  odious  doctrine  of 
life-officers  had  been  established  by  it.  In  1840,  the  governor 
found  no  difficulty  in  getting  his  nomination  confirmed.  The 
senate  was  now  largely  democratic,  probably  caused  by  this  de- 
cision of  the  court.  But  the  other  great  question  was  still  pend- 
ing ;  and  a  fear  that  it  might  be  decided  against  the  democrats, 
determined  that  party  to  reform  the  Judiciary. 

The  Constitution  provides  that  all  free  white  male  inhabitants, 
over  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  who  have  resided  in  the  State 
for  six  months,  shall  be  entitled  to  vote  at  all  general  and 
special  elections.  The  whigs  had  long  contended  that  this  pro- 
vision did  not  authorize  any  but  citizens  to  vote ;  whilst  the 
practice  had  been,  ever  since  the  Constitution  was  formed,  to 
allow  all  to  vote,  whether  citizens  or  aliens,  who  had  been  in  the 
State  six  months.  This  question  had  been  much  talked  of  and 
canvassed  in  every  part  of  the  State.  It  produced  much 
excitement,  as  it  naturally  would  when  two  great  parties  were 
arrayed  on  it,  and  when  it  was  believed  by  both  parties  that 
the  alien  vote  in  the  State  was  sufficient  to  decide  the  elections. 

In  this  state  of  the  case,  two  whigs  of  Galena  made  an  agreed 
cause  to  be  decided  by  the  circuit  court.  It  was  not  argued  on 
either  side,  and  the  judge,  who  was  a  whig,  decided  that  aliens 
were  not  entitled  to  vote.  This  was  all  done  so  quietly,  that 
it  was  near  passing  without  notice.  But  when  the  decision  was 
published,  it  threw  the  leaders  of  the  democratic  party  into 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  215 

perfect  consternation.  By  this  time  the  alien  vote  was  sup- 
posed to  be  about  10,000  strong,  nine-tenths  of  which  was 
democratic. 

The  leaders  of  the  party  took  measures  to  carry  the  case  to 
the  supreme  court.  Numerous  and  able  counsel  on  each  side 
had  been  heard  on  it  there  in  December,  1839,  and  it  was  con- 
tinued until  the  following  June.  It  was  universally  believed, 
from  certain  intimations,  that  a  majority  of  the  judges  had  deter- 
mined to  decide  against  the  aliens.  In  June,  the  democratic 
lawyers  succeeded  in  finding  an  imperfection  in  the  record, 
which  caused  another  continuance  until  December,  1840,  and 
until  after  the  presidential  election.  This  was  thought  to  be  a 
great  feat  of  dexterity  and  management,  as  by  that  means  the 
alien  vote  was  secured  at  all  events  for  one  more  election,  and 
more  particularly  for  the  presidential  election  of  that  year.  In 
this,  as  well  as  in  the  other  case  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  I 
think  the  whigs  were  clearly  wrong.  It  is  a  principle  in  all 
our  constitutions,  that  the  appointing  power,  when  exercised  by 
a  single  person,  or  by  a  body  of  men  who  can  conveniently 
act,  must  necessarily  possess  the  power  of  removal  from  office  ; 
and,  in  the  other  case,  it  was  equally  clear  that  the  word  in- 
habitant must  mean  an  alien  as  well  as  a  citizen.  But  it  was 
also  alleged  that  this  provision  of  our  constitution,  if  construed 
to  allow  an  unnaturalized  alien  to  vote,  would  come  in  conflict 
with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  gives  to  Con- 
gress the  power  of  passing  uniform  naturalization  laws.  It  was 
contended,  that  as  no  foreigners  by  those  laws  could  be  natu- 
ralized without  a  residence  in  the  country  for  five  years,  the 
State  could  not  confer  the  elective  franchise  upon  one  who  had 
resided  in  it  only  six  months.  The  obvious  answer  to  all  this 
is,  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  never  intended 
to  give  Congress  the  power  of  interfering  with  the  right  of 
suffrage.  If  it  had  contained  such  a  provision,  so  various  were 
the  different  State  Constitutions  on  this  subject  at  the  time  it 
-,  *>•  • 

* 

m 


216  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

was  adopted,  and  so  jealous  were  the  States  of  their  sovereignty, 
that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  would  never  have  been 
ratified.  Besides  this,  citizenship  alone  was  never  construed  in 
any  State  to  confer  the  elective  franchise ;  there  being  many 
citizens  in  every  State,  in  some  more  and  in  others  less,  who 
were  not  allowed  to  vote.  And  it  seemed  to  be  a  legitimate 
and  unanswerable  argument,  that  if  citizenship  alone  did  not 
confer  the  right  of  voting,  the  want  of  it  alone  could  not  take 
it  away. 

However,  it  was  believed  that  the  whig  judges,  right  or 
wrong,  would  decide  with  their  party.  And  here  I  would  re- 
mark, that  the  highest  courts  are  but  indifferent  tribunals  for 
the  settlement  of  great  political  questions,  supposing  such  set- 
tlement no  longer  to  rest  on  physical  force,  but  to  rely  for  its 
authority  upon  the  conviction  of  the  public  judgment.  In  this 
sense,  such  questions  can  never  be  settled  except  by  the  con- 
tinued triumph  of  one  party  over  the  other,  in  which  case  the 
minority  yields,  from  despair  of  success.  The  judges  are  but 
men.  In  all  the  great  questions  which  arise,  and  which  divide 
the  people  into  parties,  they  will  never  fail  to  have  their  pre- 
conceived opinions,  as  well  as  others,  and  those  opinions  must 
necessarily  be  biased  by  their  political  predilections.  But  it  is 
said  that  party  men  and  politicians  ought  not  to  be  judges  of 
the  courts.  It  would  be  better,  if  this  were  possible.  At  a 
time  when  the  whole  people  are  divided  and  convulsed  by  the 
agitation  and  discussion  of  great  party  measures  and  principles, 
it  would  be  strange  indeed  if  gifted  and  talented  men  could  be 
found  with  a  power  of  thought  making  them  fit  for  the  office, 
and  yet  who  have  never  formed  any  opinions  on  such  subjects. 
The  most  that  the  judge  can  do  to  disarm  the  public  or  party 
prejudice,  is  to  conceal  his  opinions ;  but  the  knowing  persons 
of  the  opposite  party  are  no  less  certain  that  he  has  them. 
It  may,  therefore,  be  said  of  the  ablest  and  best  judges,  those 
most  celebrated  for  dispensing  equity  and  justice  in  common 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  217 

cases  between  individuals,  that  when  any  great  political  ques- 
tion on  which  parties  are  arrayed  conies  up  for  decision,  the 
utmost  which  can  be  expected  of  them  is,  an  able  and  learned 
argument  in  favor  of  their  own  party,  whose  views  they  must 
naturally  favor,  for  the  very  reason  that  they  prefer  one  party 
to  the  other.  Such  a  decision,  therefore,  can  never  be  satisfac- 
tory to  the  opposite  party,  which  well  knows  that  if  the  judges 
had  been  of  a  different  political  complexion,  the  decision  would 
have  been  otherwise.  And,  therefore,  no  such  party  decisions, 
not  based  upon  the  power  of  majorities  of  the  people,  can  ever 
be  a  satisfactory  settlement  of  this  description  of  questions. 

As  I  have  said  before,  the  legislature  in  1835  had  created 
circuit  courts,  and  elected  circuit  judges,  the  number  of  whom 
had  by  this  time  increased  to  nine.  The  plan  of  reform  now 
was  to  abolish  these  courts,  repeal  the  judges  out  of  office,  and 
create  five  additional  judges  of  the  supreme  court,  all  of  whom 
were  required  to  hold  circuit  courts  in  place  of  the  circuit 
judges  repealed  out  of  office.  This  arrangement  would  give 
the  democratic  party  a  majority  of  two  to  one  on  the  Supreme 
bench.  The  measure  was  introduced  into  the  Senate  by  Adam 
W.  Snyder,  a  senator  from  St.  Clair  county ;  a  district  contain- 
ing a  larger  foreign  vote  than  any  other  in  the  State.  A  long 
and  violent  struggle  ensued;  and  at  times  it  was  doubtful 
whether  it  would  pass.  It  was  confessedly  a  violent  and  some- 
what revolutionary  measure,  and  could  never  have  succeeded 
except  in  times  of  great  party  excitement.  The  contest  in  the 
Presidential  election  of  1840  was  of  such  a  turbulent  and  fiery 
character,  and  the  dominant  party  in  this  State  had  been  so 
badly  defeated  in  the  nation  at  large,  by  the  election  of  Gen. 
Harrison,  that  they  were  more  than  ever  inclined  to  act  from 
motives  of  resentment  and  a  feeling  of  mortification.  The 
dominant  party  therefore  came  to  the  work  thirsting  for  re- 
venge,  as  well  as  with  a  determination  to  leave  nothing  undone 
to  secure  their  power  in  this  State  at  least.  Notwithstanding 

10 


218  HISTOET  OF  ILLINOIS. 

this  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  democracy,  many  members 
of  the  legislature  belonging  to  that  party,  were  drawn  to  the 
support  of  the  measure  with  a  great  deal  of  difficulty ;  others 
opposed  it  outright,  and  upon  no  terms,  and  with  no  appliances 
of  party  machinery  and  discipline,  could  be  brought  to  support 
it.  The  fate  of  some  of  these  democrats  affords  a  melancholy 
lesson.  They  were  denounced  by  their  friends  and  turned  over 
to  the  whigs.  But,  so  far  as  I  know,  they  have  ever  since  been 
found  acting  with  the  party,  though  they  have  never  been  able 
to  recover  its  confidence.  The  excitement  has  gone  by ;  the 
party  itself  has  been  pretty  generally  convinced  that  the  sys- 
tem then  adopted,  ought  to  be  abandoned;  that  the  supreme 
court  ought  to  be  constituted  as  it  was  before  ;  yet  these  demo- 
crats, many  of  them,  are  still  under  the  ban  ;  so  true  it  is,  that 
in  all  party  matters,  a  breach  of  discipline,  a  rebellion  against 
leaders,  is  regarded  as  infinitely  more  offensive  than  the  mere 
support  of  wicked  or  unwise  measures,  or  opposition  to  good 
ones.  A  party  never  holds  its  members  to  account  for  sup- 
porting the  worst  sort  of  measures,  or  opposing  the  best  ones, 
unless  the  leaders  have  made  them  the  test  of  fidelity  to  party ; 
but  wo  to  him  whose  conscience  is  so  tender  that  he  cannot 
support,  or  opposes  the  measures  decreed  by  his  party.  Wo  to 
him  who  is  guilty  of  a  breach  of  discipline,  or  who  rebels 
against  leaders.  In  all  matters  of  party,  there  are  two  things 
to  be  considered  ;  the  principles  of  the  party  and  its  discipline. 
A  man  may  hold  all  the  principles  of  the  party,  but  if  he  does 
not  harmonize  with  its  organization,  he  will  not  be  considered 
as  belonging  to  it.  And  he  will  be  allowed  much  of  his  natural 
liberty  to 'think  for  himself,  and  be  forgiven  much  defection  of 
principle,  if  he  will  only  obey  leaders,  and  work  in  the  party 
harness.  A  party  may  entirely  change  its  principles  and  meas- 
ures whenever  the  great  leaders  say  the  word  ;  but  if  it  still 
keeps  up  the  same  organization  and  name,  and  has  the  same 
leaders,  no  member  is  to  doubt  but  that  it  is  the  same  party  it 


HI8TOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  219 

was  before.  The  privilege  of  changing  principles  and  measures 
is  only  the  privilege  of  the  great  leaders,  upon  consultation  and 
agreement  with  the  lesser  ones ;  and  then  all  the  lesser  leaders 
and  members  of  the  party  can  safely  follow  in  the  change.  But 
wo  to  the  presumptuous  small  leader,  who  sets  up  to  change  on 
his  own  account ;  or  who  undertakes  to  differ  with  his  great 
leaders  on  the  adoption  of  new  measures,  not  before  thought  of 
in  former  contests.  This,  gentle  reader,  is  government  by  moral 
means ;  and  it  seems,  in  the  present  state  of  civilization,  that 
without  this  kind  of  government,  imperfect  and  abhorrent  to 
the  freedom  of  thought  as  it  may  be,  we  are  to  have  our  choice 
between  anarchy  and  a  government  of  stern  force.  In  the 
democratic  party,  such  rebellious,  free-thoughted,  independent 
little  leaders,  in  the  slang  language  of  the  day,  are  called 
"  tender-footed  democrats"  and  finally,  no  democrat,  at  all ;  and 
this  I  believe  to  be  the  case  with  the  other  party  whenever  they 
have  the  majority. 

The  bill  was  finally  passed  through  both  houses,  and  returned 
by  the  council  of  revision  with  their  objections ;  but  was  again 
re-passed  through  both  houses,  in  the  Senate  by  a  large  majori- 
ty, in  the  House  by  a  majority  of  one  vote.  By  this  means  the 
new  Secretary  of  State  was  secured  in  his  office,  and  the  demo- 
cratic party  were  secured  in  the  continued  support  of  the  alien 
vote ;  for  all  the  new  judges  elected  at  this  session,  were  as 
thoroughly  satisfied  of  the  right  of  each  governor  to  appoint  his 
own  Secretary  of  State,  and  of  the  right  of  alien  inhabitants  to 
vote,  as  the  whig  judges  could  be  to  the  contrary. 

During  the  pendency  of  this  question  before  the  legislature, 
the  whig  judges  decided  the  alien  case  from  Galena.  They, 
however,  did  not  decide  the  main  question.  The  case  went  off 
upon  another  point,  which  it  was  charged  by  the  democrats' 
that  the  whig  judges  had  hunted  up  on  purpose  to  dispose  of 
the  case,  without  deciding  it,  in  the  hope  that  when  the,  domi- 
nant party  could  see  that  they  were  no  longer  threatened  with 


220  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

a  decision  contrary  to  their  wishes,  they  would  abandon  their 
reform  measure.  This  charge  was  boldly  made  by  Judge 
Douglass,  in  a  speech  in  the  lobby  of  the  House,  one  evening 
after  an  adjournment.  Douglass  had  been  one  of  the  counsel 
for  the  aliens ;  and  it  appeared  from  his  speech,  that  he  and 
Judge  Smith  had  been  in  constant  communication  in  relation  to 
the  progress  of  the  case.  Judge  Smith  (I  regret  to  say  it  of  a 
man  who  is  no  more)  was  an  active,  bustling,  ambitious,  and 
turbulent  member  of  the  democratic  party.  He  had  for  a  long 
time  aimed  to  be  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  ;  his  de- 
vices and  intrigues  to  this  end  had  been  innumerable.  In  fact, 
he  never  lacked  a  plot  to  advance  himself,  or  to  blow  up  some 
other  person.  He  was  a  laborious  and  ingenious  schemer  in 
politics ;  but  his  plans  were  always  too  complex  and  ramified 
for  his  power  to  execute  them.  Being  always  unsuccessful  him- 
self, he  was  delighted  with  the  mishaps  alike  of  friends  and  ene- 
mies ;  and  was  ever  chuckling  over  the  defeat  or  the  blasted 
hopes  of  some  one.  In  this  case  he  sought  to  gain  credit  with 
the  leading  democrats,  by  the  part  he  took,  and  affected  to  take, 
in  the  alien  case,  as  he  had  before  in  the  case  of  the  Secretary 
of  State.  He  it  was  who  privately  suggested  to  counsel  the 
defect  in  the  record  which  resulted  in  the  continuance  in  June, 
1840 ;  and  during  the  whole  time  the  case  was  pending,  with 
the  same  view  he  was  giving  out  to  Douglass  and  others,  the 
probable  opinion  of  the  court.  He  affirmed  that  the  judges  at 
one  term  all  had  their  opinions  written  ready  to  deliver,  and 
all  but  himself  deciding  against  the  aliens ;  and  that  the  case 
would  have  been  so  decided,  if  he  had  not  discovered  the  afore- 
said defect  in  the  record.  Upon  his  authority  Douglass  de- 
nounced the  court,  and  brought  all  these  charges  against  the  whig 
judges,  and  endeavored  to  make  it  appear  that  they  had  now 
only  evaded  a  decision  for  the  time  being,  in  the  vain  hope  of 
stopping  the  career  of  the  legislature.  The  judges,  on  their  part, 
denied  all  these  charges;  and  Judge  Smith  uniting  with  the 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  221 

whig  judges,  published  their  denial  in  the  Sangamon  Journal 
newspaper,  at  Springfield.  Douglass  was  immediately  sus- 
tained as  to  the  statements  of  Judge  Smith,  by  the  published 
letters  of  a  half  dozen  other  gentlemen  of  veracity,  to  whom 
Judge  Smith  had  made  similar  statements. 

But  allowing  all  that  was  said  to  be  true,  and  there  is  now 
no  doubt  that  the  whole  of  it  was  false,  it  is  feared  that  if  the 
right  mode  of  reformation  had  been  adopted,  the  legislature 
would  have  punished  an  offence  which  they  had  themselves 
caused  the  court  to  commit.  The  judges  may  possibly  have 
feared  being  put  upon  the  laborious  duty  of  holding  circuit 
courts,  from  which  they  had  been  relieved  for  several  years ; 
and  they  may  have  supposed  that  the  reform  measure,  as  it  was 
called,  would  be  put  an  end  to,  as  soon  as  the  democrats  ceased 
to  fear  a  decision  against  them  in  the  alien  case.  If  they  thought 
so,  they  had  but  little  knowledge  of  the  spirit  and  genius  of 
party.  The  democrats,  by  a  thorough  change  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  court,  desired  to  obtain  full  security  for  the  future. 
Independent  of  this,  when  a  measure  once  becomes  a  party 
measure,  it  cannot  be  suddenly  abandoned.  And  besides  this, 
again,  a  party  scarcely  ever  stops  at  the  accomplishment  of  its 
wishes,  unless  brought  about  by  its  own  favorite  measures,  and 
by  something  that  it  has  done  itself.  I  have  more  than  once 
known  a  party  to  persist  in  urging  a  measure,  long  after  its 
wishes  had  been  accomplished  by  other  means. 

Ever  since  this  reforming  measure,  the  judiciary  has  been 
unpopular  with  the  democratic  majorities.  Many  and  most  of 
the  judges  have  had  great  personal  popularity ;  so  much  so  as 
to  create  complaint  of  so  many  of  them  being  elected  or  ap- 
pointed to  other  offices.  But  the  bench  itself  has  been  the  sub- 
ject of  bitter  attacks  by  every  legislature  since.  The  two  houses 
have  almost  come  to  the  opinion,  that  as  they  are  numero%s 
bodies,  fresh  from  the  people  every  two  and  four  years,  the 
other  departments  of  the  government,  the  executive  and  judi- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

ciary,  are  mere  excrescences  on  the  body  politic,  which  ought 
to  be  pruned  away.  As  to  Judge  Smith,  he  made  nothing  by 
all  his  intrigues.  By  opposing  the  reform  bill,  he  fell  out  and 
quarrelled  with  the  leaders  of  his  party.  He  lost  the  credit  he 
had  gained  by  being  the  democratic  champion  on  the  bench, 
and  failed  to  be  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate ;  and  was 
put  back  to  the  laborious  duty  of  holding  circuit  courts.  Thus 
bringing  upon  himself,  by  his  active  efforts  to  destroy  the  char- 
acter and  influence  of  the  court  of  which  he  was  a  member,  the 
just  desert  of  his  conduct. 

The  judges  of  the  supreme  court  had  been  withdrawn  from 
holding  circuit  courts  for  six  years ;  consequently  they  had  lost 
their  political  influence,  which  now  attached  itself  to  the  circuit 
judges,  who  had  a  better  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted 
and  making  friends  among  the  people.  The  supreme  court,  as 
a  co-ordinate  branch  of  government,  had  become  weak ;  so  true 
is  it,  that  the  actual  power  to  be  exercised  by  either  branch  of 
government,  depends  less  upon  the  powers  conferred  in  the 
Constitution,  than  upon  the  moral  power  of  popularity  and  in- 
fluence with  the  people  and  their  representatives.  For  this 
reason,  many  believed  it  to  be  necessary  to  restore  the  judges 
of  the  supreme  court  to  circuit  duties,  in  order  to  give  political 
vigor  to  the  judiciary  department ;  so  as  to  enable  them  to  act 
with  independence,  and  thus  preserve  the  balances  of  the  con- 
stitution. 

No  further  attempt  was  made  after  July,  1841,  to  pay  inter- 
est on  the  public  debt.  For  want  of  full  knowledge  of  her 
condition  abroad,  and  of  the  condition  of  other  new  States,  in 
a  short  time  Illinois,  and  some  others  in  the  west,  became  a 
stench  in  the  nostrils  of  the  civilized  world.  The  people  at 
home  began  to  wake  up  in  terror ;  the  people  abroad  who  wish- 
ed to  settle  in  a  new  country,  avoided  Illinois  as  they  would 
pestilence  and  famine ;  and  there  was  great  danger  that  the  fu- 
ture emigrants  would  be  men  who,  having  no  regard  for  their 


HISTOEY  OP  ILLINOIS.  223 

own  characters,  would  also  have  none  for  that  of  the  State  where 
they  might  live.  The  terrors  of  high  taxation  were  before  all 
eyes,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Every  one  at  home  wanted  to 
sell  his  property  and  move  away,  and  but  few,  either  at  home 
or  abroad,  wanted  to  purchase.  The  impossibility  of  selling, 
kept  us  from  losing  population ;  and  the  fear  of  disgrace  or 
high  taxes,  prevented  us  from  gaining  materially. 

To  add  to  the  general  calamity  and  terror  of  the  people,  in 
February,  1842,  the  State  Bank,  with  a  circulation  of  three  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  finally  exploded  with  a  great  crash,  carrying 
wide-spread  ruin  all  over  the  State,  and  into  the  neighboring 
States  and  territories.  In  June  following,  the  bank  at  Shawnee- 
town  "  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  its  illustrious  predecessor," 
leaving  the  people  almost  entirely  without  a  circulating  medium. 
The  paper  of  these  two  banks  had  been  at  a  discount  for  spe- 
cie ever  since  the  United  States  refused  to  receive  it  for  the 
public  lands,  and  to  make  the  banks  depositories  of  the  public 
moneys.  At  first  the  discount  was  small,  two  or  three  per 
cent.,  but  in  two  or  three  years  advanced  to  twelve  and  fifteen 
per  cent.,  and  then  came  the  crash.  The  banks,  however,  man- 
aged to  make  their  paper  the  standard  of  par ;  and  specie,  and 
other  paper  of  less  credit,  was  above  or  below  par.  The  dis- 
count was  sufficient,  for  three  years  before,  to  banish  all  good 
money  from  circulation ;  so  that  when  the  banks  failed,  the 
people  were  left  without  money  until  supplied  by  the  course  of 
trade,  which,  in  a  country  so  little  commercial  as  Illinois  at 
that  time,  was  a  slow  process.  When  I  came  into  office  in  1842, 
I  estimated  that  the  good  money  in  the  State,  in  the  hands  of 
the  people,  did  not  exceed  one  year's  interest  on  the  public  debt. 

That  which  contributed  the  last  spark  to  the  explosion  of 
the  State  Bank,  was  the  course  of  some  of  the  State  directors, 
who  were  contractors  to  finish  the  northern  cross  railroad,  and 
who  were  to  be  paid  in  canal  bonds,  which  at  the  time  were 
unsaleable.  These  interested  parties,  joining  with  others  in  the 


224  HISTOKY  OP  ILLINOIS. 

directory,  established  it  as  a  principle,  that  the  bank  could  not 
issue  an  excess  of  its  paper  whilst  in  a  state  of  suspension. 
This  they  did  to  get  loans  from  the  bank  to  carry  on  their 
work  on  the  road  ;  and  having  obtained  money  themselves  upon 
this  principle,  they  were  obliged  to  vote  loans  to  all  others. 
But  experience  soon  showed  that  the  principle  was  false,  for  no 
sooner  was  more  paper  put  into  circulation  than  could  be  sus- 
tained by  the  business  of  the  country,  than  the  bank  exploded. 
It  may  be  added  to  this,  that  the  State  Bank,  to  obtain  favor 
from  the  legislature,  was  compelled  to  make  loans  to  the  State, 
and  to  advance  its  bills  for  auditor's  warrants  for  a  large  amount, 
to  defray  the  ordinary  expenses  of  government ;  the  revenues 
being  again  insufficient,  and  the  legislature  afraid  to  increase 
the  taxes.  When  I  came  into  office,  the  State  owed  the  bank, 
on  this  account,  two  hundred  and  ninety-four  thousand  dollars. 

A  somewhat  similar  connection  with  the  State  assisted  much 
to  break  the  Shawneetown  Bank.  That  bank  was  first  induced 
to  lend  the  State  about  $80,000  to  finish  the  State  House  ;  and 
in  September,  1839,  upon  the  recommendation  and  urgent  re- 
quest of  Governor  Carlin,  and  upon  his  promise  to  deposit 
$500,000  in  internal  improvement  bonds,  as  collateral  security, 
which  promise  was  never  performed,  the  bank  was  induced  to 
lend  the  Commissioners  of  Public  Works  the  further  sum  of 
$200,000,  which  was  never  repaid  to  it.* 

Upon  the  whole,  we  have  heard  much  said  by  demagogues 
about  our  swindling  banks  ;  but  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  to 
show,  that  if  the  banks  had  swindled  only  one  quarter  as  much 
as  they  have  been  swindled  by  the  State,  and  by  individuals, 
they  would  have  been  perfectly  solvent,  and  able  to  pay  every 
dollar  of  their  debt ;  and  what  is  most  remarkable  is,  that 
those  who  have  swindled  the  banks  most,  are  the  most  loud  in 
their  cries  against  them  for  swindling. 

As  I  have  elsewhere  said,  these  .banks  first  suspended  specie 
*  See  reports  of  House  of  Representatives,  1842-'3,  pages  203,  '4,  '6. 


HISTOEY  OP  ILLINOIS.  225 

payments  in  the  spring  of  1837.  In  that  year,  the  suspension 
was  legalized  to  save  the  canal  and  internal  improvement  sys- 
tem. I  do  not  know  the  reason  why  this  favor  was  continued 
by  the  session  of  1838-'9,  or  any  of  the  following  sessions  until 
1841.  But  I  do  know  that  all,  or  nearly  all,  of  the  leading 
democrats  opposed  the  measure.  This  was  a  new  manifestation 
of  hostility  on  the  part  of  the  democrats  to  these  banks ;  and 
this,  again,  was  cause  enough  to  rally  the  main  body  of  the 
whigs  in  their  favor  ;  and  this,  again,  was  of  immense  advan- 
tage to  the  banks  in  sustaining  their  credit.  The  merchants  and 
business  men  all  over  the  country  were  mostly  whigs.  They 
believed  that  the  banks  were  unjustly  persecuted  by  the  demo- 
crats, that  they  were  perfectly  solvent,  and  that  all  the  objec- 
tions of  the  democrats  amounted  to  no  more  than  senseless  clamor. 
In  the  meantime  the  State  Bank  had  been  made  the  deposit- 
ory of  the  State  revenues.  The  collectors  had  been  required 
to  pay  the  revenues  arising  from  taxation  into  this  bank,  as  into 
the  public  treasury.  All  auditors'  warrants  were  drawn  upon 
the  bank,  which  were  paid  in  its  own  paper.  In  this  mode  the 
legislature  and  all  public  officers  were  paid  in  the  paper  of  the 
bank ;  for,  as  nothing  better  was  paid  in,  nothing  better  could 
be  paid  out.  This  gave  the  bank  a  decided  advantage  over  the 
legislature.  It  was  in  the  power  of  the  bank  to  send  the  mem- 
bers home  without  their  pay,  except  in  auditors'  warrants,  at 
fifty  per  cent,  discount,  unless  something  should  be  done  to  sus- 
tain the  credit  of  its  paper.  This  lever,  and  a  few  opportune 
loans  to  some  democrats,  together  with  the  aid  of  the  whigs, 
commanded  relief  at  the  session  of  1841.  This  session  was 
called  two  weeks  earlier  than  usual,  for  the  purpose  of  provid- 
ing means  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  public  debt,  becoming  due 
in  January,  1841.  The  democrats  contended  that  this  early  com- 
mencement was  a  special  session,  and  that  the  regular  session 
must  be  commenced  anew,  on  the  first  Monday  of  December 
following  the  first  meeting.  The  whigs  contended  that  the  two 


226  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

sessions  only  made  one,  and  refused  to  support  a  sine  die  ad- 
journment on  the  Saturday  preceding  the  first  Monday  in  De- 
cember. This  was  then  supposed  to  be  a  very  vital  question. 
The  democrats  supposed  that  such  an  adjournment  would  put 
an  end  to  the  banks,  as  the  previous  law  had  provided  for  a  re- 
sumption of  specie  payments  before  the  adjournment  of  the 
next  session  of  the  general  assembly,  or  otherwise  they  were  to 
forfeit  their  charters.  This  was  a  session  of  much  bitterness  and 
personal  hatred.  The  democrats  came  up  from  the  people  in- 
flamed with  the  highest  degree  of  resentment  against  the  banks 
and  the  judiciary  ;  and  the  whigs  came  with  an  equal  hatred  of 
the  democrats,  and  a  firm  determination,  as  a  general  thing,  to 
oppose  whatever  the  democrats  might  favor.  I  believe  it  is  a 
principle  of  all  great  political  parties,  that  they  cannot  be  very 
far  wrong  if  they  disagree  to  everything  proposed  by  their  ad- 
versaries. The  whigs  took  ground  in  favor  of  the  banks,  the 
democrats  against  them.  The  question  was  on  the  sine  die  ad- 
journment of  the  special  session.  The  whigs  saw  that  the  ad« 
journment  would  carry.  To  defeat  it,  they  began  to  absent 
themselves  from  the  house,  so  as  not  to  leave  a  quorum.  A 
call  of  the  house  was  made,  and  its  officers  were  sent  out  to 
bring  in  and  secure  the  attendance  of  the  absent  members.  The 
doors  were  closed  to  prevent  further  escapes,  but  nevertheless 
some  of  the  whigs  jumped  out  of  the  windows,  but  not  enough 
to  defeat  the  purpose  of  the  dominant  party.  The  session  was 
adjourned,  and,  according  to  the  views  of  the  democrats,  the 
banks  were  at  an  end.  The  bank  party  had  been  defeated,  and 
the  democracy  had  obtained  at  last  a  great  and  glorious  victory. 
But  the  victory  could  not  be  secured  ;  for  before  the  end  of  the 
regular  session  in  December  the  banks  obtained  a  further  priv- 
ilege of  suspension,  and  the  State  Bank  obtained  an  additional 
privilege  which  had  never  been  granted  to  it  before,  that  of  issu- 
ing one,  two,  and  three-dollar  notes.  So  much  for  a  democratic 
victory.  This  privilege  of  issuing  small  notes,  it  was  thought, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  227 

would  aid  the  banks  in  making  an  earlier  resumption.  They 
immediately  flooded  the  country  with  small  notes  in  place  of 
the  large  ones.  This  banished  the  silver  dollar  from  circulation. 
It  destroyed  the  specie  basis  all  over  the  country,  and  made  it 
impossible  for  the  banks  to  increase  their  stock  of  precious  met- 
als except  by  purchase.  All  deposits  and  payments  were  made 
in  the  only  circulation  th.en  in  the  country.  The  banks  might 
lose  specie,  but  they  could  not  increase  it.  I  think  I  hazard  no- 
thing in  saying  that  this  privilege  of  issuing  small  notes  did  as 
much  mischief  to  the  banks  themselves  as  it  did  to  the  people 
at  large. 

During  the  whole  of  this  long  and  angry  contest,  the  whigs 
accused  the  democrats  of  making  war  upon  the  commerce  and 
the  currency  of  the  country.  These  banks  were  termed  the  in- 
stitutions of  the  country,  and  war  upon  them,  in  the  language 
of  the  whigs,  was  war  upon  the  institutions  of  the  country.  In 
whig  estimation,  the  democrats  were  disloyal,  destructive,  and 
opposed  to  government.  The  whigs,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
democrats,  were  a  set  of  bank  vassals,  and  were  frequently  call- 
ed by  the  democrats,  the  ragocracy.  The  presidents  and  direct- 
ors of  banks  were  called  rag-barons ;  bank  paper  was  called 
bank  rags,  and  written  or  printed  lies ;  whilst  the  whole  body 
of  the  whig  party  were,  from  an  excess  of  hatred,  termed  the 
British-bought,  Bank,  blue-light,  federal,  whig  party. 

Our  whig  friends  contended  that  the  continual  and  violent  op- 
position of  the  democrats  to  the  banks  destroyed  confidence ; 
which,  by-the-bye,  could  only  exist  when  the  bulk  of  the  people 
were  under  a  delusion  and  believed  in  a  falsehood.  According 
to  their  views,  if  the  banks  owed  five  times  as  much  as  they 
were  able  to  pay,  and  the  people  owed  to  each  other  and  to  the 
banks  more  than  they  were  able  to  pay,  and  yet  if  the  whole 
people  could  be  persuaded  to  believe  the  incredible  falsehood, 
that  all  were  able  to  pay,  this  was  "  confidence,"  which,  if  once 
destroyed,  could  only  be  restored  by  the  restoration  of  a  sim- 
ilar general  delusion.  ''-? 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Progress  of  settlements — Colleges — Education — Society — Religion — Literature — John  M. 
Peck— James  Hall— John  Russell— Newspapers — Effects  of  speculation— Plenty  of 
money — Credit — Debts — Usury — High  rates  of  interest — History  of  mobs — Alton — 
Mob — Lovejoy — Abolitionists — Mobs  in  Pope  county — Mobs  in  the  north— Ogle 
county  mob — Cause  of  mobs  in  free  countries— Jo  Smith— Origin  of  the  Mormons — 
Their  settlement  in  Missouri— Troubles  there — Settlement  in  Ohio— Kirtland  Bank — 
Mormons  return  to  Missouri — Mormon  war  there — Expulsion  from  Missouri — Settle- 
ment of  the  Mormons  in  Illinois — Politics  of  the  Mormons — Martin  Van  Buren — 
Henry  Clay — John  J.  Stuart — Doctor  Bennett — Senator  Little — Stephen  A.  Douglass 
—Mormon  charters— Nauvoo  legion— Popular  clamor  against  the  Mormons — Arrest 
of  Jo  Smith— Trial  before  Judge  Douglass— Nomination  of  Mr.  Snyder  as  the  demo- 
cratic candidate  for  Governor — Governor  Duncan  again  a  candidate — The  Mormons 
declare  for  the  democrats — Governor  Duncan  attacks  the  Mormons  and  the  Mormon 
charters— Death  of  Snyder— His  character— Nomination  of  the  author  in  his  place — 
Reasons  for  this  nomination — Further  examination  into  the  practical  operations  of 
government — Election  of  the  author — The  Governor,  Auditor  and  Treasurer  forbid 
the  receipt  of  Bank  paper  for  taxes — Condition  of  the  State  in  1842. 

BY  the  year  1840,  the  whole  State  had  been  settled,  except 
some  of  the  wide  prairies  far  from  timber.  There  was  no  longer 
any  more  wilderness.  The  country  in  Henry  county,  though 
as  good  as  any  other  part  of  the  State,  I  believe  was  the  last  to 
be  settled  in  1838.  Several  colleges  and  academies  had  been 
built  and  were  in  successful  operation.  The  Illinois  college,  at 
Jacksonville,  under  the.  direction  of  the  Presbyterians,  was 
built  by  an  association  of  gentlemen  of  Boston.  Shurtliff  col- 
lege at  Alton,  was  established  under  the  direction  of  the  Bap- 
tists ;  McKendree  college  at  Lebanon,  under  the  direction  of 
the  Methodists ;  and  McDonough  college  at  Macomb,  and  Kriox 
college,  at  Galesburg,  were  established  also  by  the  Presbyte- 
rians. The  Catholics  established  a  flourishing  nunnery  at  the 
ancient  town  of  Kaskaskia  for  the  education  of  females;  Bishop 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  229 

Chase,  with  the  aid  of  contributions  from  the  members  of  the 
Episcopal  church  and  others,  established  Jubilee  college  in 
Peoria  county;  and  the  Methodists  established  a  flourishing 
seminary  at  Mount  Morris,  in  the  county  of  Ogle.  Beside 
these  there  were  numerous  academies  and  high  schools  in  many 
parts  of  the  State.  Opportunities  for  education  in  the  higher 
branches  were  good  for  all  who  were  able  and  willing  to  profit 
by  them.  Common  schools  flourished  in  many  places,  more 
than  could  have  been  expected,  when  all  efficient  encourage- 
ment to  them  had  been  abandoned  by  the  Government. 

Chicago,  Alton,  Springfield,  Quincy,  Galena,  and  Nauvoo, 
had  become  cities  bqjore  the  year  1842.  To  these  has  since 
been  added  the  city  of  Peoria.  Most  of  the  county  seats  had 
grown  up  to  be  towns  of  from  five  to  fifteen  hundred  inhabit- 
ants ;  and  there  were  many  other  villages  in  many  of  the  coun- 
ties containing  a  population  of  from  one  hundred  to  a  thousand 
souls.  The  towns  contained  a  good  deal  of  intelligence,  polish, 
and  eloquence.  It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  people  of  this 
new  country  had  just  sprung  up  out  of  the  ground,  with  no  ad- 
vantages of  education  and  society.  They  were  nearly  all  of 
them  emigrants  from  the  old  States,  being  often  the  most  in- 
telligent and  enterprising  of  their  population.  As  such,  they 
were  just  a  slice  off  of  the  great  loaf  of  the  old  States.  But 
they  were  not  apt  to  be  so  considered  by  the  latest  comers. 
These  always  imagined  that  they  were  come  to  a  land  of  com- 
parative ignorance,  and  that  they  must  necessarily  be  superior 
to  the  people  already  here,  until  they  were  convinced  to  the 
contrary  by  finding  out  that  their  pretensions  had  made  them 
ridiculous ;  and  if  their  pretensions  were  noticed  at  all,  it  was 
only  to  be  laughed  at.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  find 
families  of  these  last  new  comers  scattered  all  over  the  country, 
forever  complaining  of  the  want  of  good  society ;  and  of  the 
many  privations  they  endured  in  a  new  country.  These  com- 
plaints were  uttered,  not  so  much  because  they  were  true,  as  to 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 


let  people  know  that  those  who  made  them,  were  somebodies 
where  they  came  from.  The  same  kind  of  people  to  show 
themselves  off  as  something  superior  to  others,  were  forever 
uttering  sarcasms  and  slighting  remarks  of  the  State  and  the 
people.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  find  them  in  all  the 
taverns,  stages-coaches  and  steamboats,  letting  on,  that  although 
their  destiny  compelled  them  to  live  in  the  State,  yet  they 
knew  how  degraded  the  rest  of  the  people  were  as  well  as  he 
who  resided  in  a  city,  or  lived  in  a  palace.  Indeed,  the  bodies 
only  of  a  great  many  people  and  not  their  minds  lived  in  the 
State.  It  was  difficult  to  forget  the  father-land.  Most  of  the 
emigrants  remembered  New  York,  or  P^ew  England,  or  their 
other  places  of  nativity,  with  affection  and  lively  interest.  A 
man  from  Massachusetts  took  a  newspaper  from  his  native 
town,  he  watched  the  progress  of  politics,  the  success  of  men 
and  parties,  and  the  history  of  government  there,  with  as  much 
interest  as  if  he  had  never  removed.  And  so  of  the  emigrants 
from  other  States.  It  was  natural  it  should  be  so.  But  whilst 
it  was  so,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  matters  suffered  at  home. 
There  was  but  little  State  pride  for  Illinois.  Illinois  could  be 
abused  anywhere  with  impunity.  I  hope  yet  to  live  to  see  the 
day  in  Illinois,  as  it  is  in  Kentucky,  Virginia,  Tennessee,  South 
Carolina,  New  York,  and  New  England,  that  no  one  will  be 
suffered  to  abuse  the  State  without  being  scorned  and  insulted. 
It  is  true  that  a  State  pride  must  be  deserved  before  it  can 
exist.  The  people  must  have  something  to  be  proud  of.  The 
State  will  never  really  prosper  without  this  State  pride.  It  is 
the  greatest  incentive  to  excellence  in  government,  and  in  every- 
thing else,  for  the  people  to  be  proud  of  their  country.* 

*  It  seems  to  me  that  the  people  of  Illinois  may  now  justly  be  proud 
of  their  State.  They  have  with  great  unanimity  put  down  the  hideous 
monster  of  repudiation ;  contrary  to  the  instigations  of  numerous  dema- 
gogues they  have  submitted  cheerfully  to  be  taxed  to  pay  their  just 
debts ;  they  are  about  to  see  their  canal,  one  of  the  greatest  works  in 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  281 

As  new  people  came  in  they  brought  with  them  their  religion 
and  literature.  Churches  now  began  to  be  rapidly  established 
in  the  towns,  and  in  many  country  places.  Pastors  were  regu- 
larly settled  and  paid ;  church  buildings  were  erected,  divided 
off  into  pews,  and  the  sound  of  the  "  church-going  bell"  began 
to  be  heard.  It  soon  become  fashionable  to  attend  some  church, 
and  constant  attendance  induced  many  to  join  as  members. 

During  the  previous  period  of  our  history,  our  literature  was 
principally  confined  to  mere  newspaper  writing,  which  discuss- 
ed mostly  the  mere  affairs  of  party,  or  the  claims  of  some  man 
to  an  office ;  or  the  demerit  of  an  opponent.  John  M.  Peck, 
of  Rock  Spring,  in  St.  Clair  county,  published  a  State  Gazetteer, 
a  work  of  considerable  labor  and  well  written.  John  Russell, 
of  Bluff  Dale,  published  some  fugitive  essays  and  tales  in  the 
newspapers,  which  marked  him  as  a  man  of  genius  and  a  fine 
writer ;  and  Judge  James  Hall  early  distinguished  himself  as  a 
scholar  and  writer.  He  published  at  Vandalia,  an  Illinois 
monthly  magazine  of  high  merit ;  and  an  annual  called  "  the 
Western  Souvenir,"  a  collection  of  original  tales  and  poetry, 
written  principally  by  himself,  evincing  such  merit  as  to  make 
him  distinguished  all  over  the  United  States,  as  an  author,  But 
ttere  was  not  sufficient  patronage  in  Illinois  at  that  time  for  the 
pursuits  of  literature ;  so  Judge  Hall  removed  to  Cincinnati, 

America,  completed.  Their  legislatures  have  improved  in  knowledge, 
public  spirit  and  patriotism,  ever  since  1840 ;  which  was  about  the 
darkest  time  in  public  affairs,  And  when  the  services  of  her  sons  were 
called  for  in  the  Mexican  war,  8,370  of  them  in  a  few  weeks  answered 
the  call,  though  only  8,720  (four  regiments)  could  be  taken.  Every 
one  of  these  regiments  afterwards  distinguished  themselves  for  unheard- 
of  courage  in  the  severest  battles  ever  fought  on  this  continent.  Har- 
din,  Bisaell,  Weatherford,  Morrison,  Trail,  Warren,  are  proud  names  as- 
sociated with  the  glorious  victory  of  Buena  Vista.  Shields,  Baker, 
Harris,  Coffey,  and  others,  will  be  remembered  as  long  as  the  capture 
of  Vera  Cruz,  or  the  storming  of  Cerro  Gordo,  are  remembered.  What 
did  Kentucky  ever  do  more  than  this  ? 


232  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

where  he  now  resides.  But  before  he  left  Illinois  he  had  ac 
quired  a  high  reputation  as  a  writer. 

The  great  plenty  of  money  brought  here  by  the  work  on  the 
canal  and  thej-ailroads,  set  up  a  great  many  merchants  all  over 
the  country  in  ousiness  ;  it  increased  the  stocks  of  goods  brought 
to  be  sold;  created  unnatural  competition  amongst  the  mer- 
chants to  sell ;  who  were  forced  to  sell  on  a  credit  or  not  at  all. 
The  people  were  encouraged  to  buy  on  credit,  and  when  their 
debts  became  due,  for  want  of  money  to  pay  them,  they  gave 
their  notes  to  the  merchants  with  twelve  per  cent,  interest, 
which  the  reader  will  observe  hereafter  was  the  cause  of  some 
strange  legislation  on  the  collection  of  debts,  and  caused  the 
reduction  of  the  rate  of  interest  to  six  per  cent.  Until  the  year 
1833,  there  had  been  no  legal 'limit  to  the  rate  of  interest  to  be 
fixed  by  contract.  But  usury  had  been  carried  to  such  an  un- 
precedented degree  of  extortion  and  oppression,  as  to  cause  the 
legislature  to  enact  severe  usury  laws,  by  which  all  interest 
above  twelve  per  cent,  was  condemned.  It  had  been  no  un- 
common thing  before  this,  to  charge  one  hundred  and  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  per  cent.,  and  sometimes  two  and  three  hundred 
per  cent.  But  the  common  rate  of  interest  by  contract  had 
been  about  fifty  per  cent. 

In  the  year  1840,  the  people  called  Mormons  came  to  this 
State,  and  settled  in  Hancock  county,  and  as  their  residence 
amongst  us  led  to  a  mobocratic  spirit,  which  resulted  in  their 
expulsion,  it  is  proper  here  to  notice  other  incidents  of  this  sort, 
in  our  previous  history. 

In  1816  and  '17,  in  the  towns  of  the  territory,  the  country 
was  overrun  with  horse-thieves  and  counterfeiters.  They  were 
so  numerous,  and  so  well  combined  together  in  many  counties, 
as  to  set  the  laws  at  defiance.  Many  of  the  sheriffs,  justices  of 
the  peace,  and  constables,  were  of  their  number;  and  even 
some  of  the  judges  of  the  county  courts ;  and  they  had  numer- 
ous friends  to  aid  them  and  sympathize  with  them,  even 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  233 

amongst  those  who  were  the  least  suspected.  When  any  of 
them  were  arrested,  they  either  escaped  from  the  slight  jails  of 
those  times,  or  procured  some  of  their  gang  to  be  on  the  jury ;  and 
they  never  lacked  witnesses  to  prove  themselves  innocent.  The 
people  formed  themselves  into  revolutionary  tribunals  in  many 
counties,  under  the  name  of  "Regulators;"  and  the  governor 
and  judges  of  the  territory,  seeing  the  impossibility  of  executing 
the  laws  in  the  ordinary  way,  against  an  organized  banditti,  who 
set  all  law  at  defiance,  winked  at  and  encouraged  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  regulators. 

These  regulators  in  number  generally  constituted  about  a 
captain's  company,  to  which  they  gave  a  military  organization, 
by  the  election  of  officers.  The  company  generally  operated  at 
night.  When  assembled  for  duty,  they  marched,  armed  and 
equipped  as  if  for  war,  to  the  residence  or  lurking-place  of  a 
rogue,  arrested,  tried,  and  punished  him  by  severe  whipping 
and  banishment  from  the  territory.  In  this  mode  most  of  the 
rogues  were  expelled  from  the  country ;  and  it  was  the  opinion 
of  the  best  men  at  the  time,  that  in  the  then  divided  and  dis- 
organized state  of  society,  and  the  imperfect  civilization  which 
required  such  proceedings,  were  not  only  justifiable,  but  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  the  existence  of  government. 

There  yet  remained,  however,  for  many  years  afterwards,  a 
noted  gang  of  rogues  in  the  counties  of  Pape  and  Massac,  and 
other  counties  bordering  on  the  Ohio  river.  This  gang  built  a 
fort  in  Pape  county,  and  set  the  government  at  open  defiance. 
In  the  year  1831,  the  honest  portion  of  the  people  in  that  re- 
gion assembled  under  arms  in  great  numbers,  and  attacked  the 
fort  with  small  arms  and  one  piece  of  artillery.  The  fort  was 
taken  by  storm,  with  the  loss  of  one  of  the  regulators  and  three 
of  the  rogues  killed  in  the  assault.  The  residue  of  the  rogues 
were  taken  prisoners,  tried  for  their  crimes,  but  I  believe  were 
never  convicted. 

At  a  later  time,  a  number  of  rogues  who  had  located  them- 


234  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

selves  in  the  county  of  Edgar,  were  broken  up,  whipped,  and 
expelled  by  a  company  of  regulators  from  the  Wabash  valley, 
the  present  Governor  French  being  a  distinguished  member  of 
the  regulators. 

In  1837  a  series  of  mobs  took  place  in  Alton,  which  resulted 
in  the  destruction  of  an  abolition  press,  and  in  the  death  of  one 
of  the  rioters  and  one  of  the  abolitionists.  This  affair  has  made 
a  great  noise  in  the  world,  and  is  deserving  of  a  more  extended 
notice.  It  appears  that  the  Rev.  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  of  the 
Presbyterian  church,  had  attempted  to  publish  an  abolition 
paper  in  St.  Louis,  but  his  press  had  there  been  destroyed  by 
a  mob,  and  he  himself  had  been  expelled  from  the  city. 

Mr.  Lovejoy  now  determined  to  remove  his  establishment 
to  Alton.  The  press  for  this  purpose  was  landed  on  Sunday, 
but  during  that  night  was  thrown  into  the  river  by  the  citizens. 
There  was  much  excitement  on  the  subject,  and  a  public  meet- 
ing was  called  on  Monday  evening  to  be  held  in  the  Presby- 
terian church,  which  was  attended  by  an  immense  concourse  of 
people. 

Mr.  Lovejoy  first  addressed  the  meeting.  He  said  he  came 
to  Alton  to  establish  a  religious  newspaper.  He  was  pleased 
with  the  place,  and  wished  to  remain ;  there  most  of  his  sub- 
scribers resided  in  Illinois  ;  and  it  would  best  suit  his  purposes 
and  theirs  that  he  should  do  so.  He  disliked  St.  Louis,  and  he 
disliked  slavery.  He  regretted  that  he  had  met  with  such  a  re- 
ception at  Alton;  he  presumed  that  the  people  had  miscon- 
ceived his  object.  He  was  no  abolitionist;  he  believed  the 
abolitionists  were  injuring  the  colored  race ;  he  had  repeatedly 
denounced  them,  and  had  been  himself  denounced  by  Garrison 
and  others,  as  being  in  favor  of  slavery,  because  he  was  unwill- 
ing to  go  with  the  abolitionists  in  favor  of  all  their  measures. 
He  was  opposed  to  slavery  to  be  sure ;  he  had  ever  been,  and 
hoped  he  always  would  be  opposed  to  it,  and  he  wished  to  get 
away  from  the  evil  of  it.  Whilst  at  St.  Louis,  where  slavery 


HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS.  235 

existed,  he  felt  bound  to  oppose  it.  For  so  doing  his  press  had 
been  mobbed  and  himself  insulted.  He  had  resolved  to  come 
to  a  free  State,  and  he  thanked  his  God  that  he  was  now  re- 
jnoved  from  slavery.  He  could  now  publish  a  religious  news- 
paper without  meddling  with  the  subject  of  slavery ;  he  could 
entertain  his  opinions ;  but  being  removed  from  the  evil,  he 
would  have  no  cause  to  express  them.  Indeed,  said  he,  it  would 
look  like  cowardice  to  flee  from  the  place  where  the  evil  existed, 
and  come  to  a  place  where  it  did  not  exist,  to  oppose  it. 

The  people  understood  this  to  be  a  pledge  of  Mr.  Lovejoy, 
that  he  would  not  mingle  the  question  of  slavery  with  the  dis- 
cussions in  his  paper ;  and  upon  this  condition  he  was  permitted 
to  set  up  the  "  Alton  Observer"  without  opposition.  Time 
rolled  on :  the  paper  extended  its  circulation,  but  solely  as  a 
religious  paper,  heralding  the  peaceful  gospel  of  the  blessed 
God,  which  is  peace  on  earth  and  good- will  to  men.  After  some 
time,  slavery  was  very  moderately  referred  to,  and  then  de- 
nounced. Soon  after,  the  paper  became  moderately  abolition- 
ist. Next,  some  of  the  most  respectable  citizens  were  de- 
nounced as  being  in  favor  of  slavery,  and  held  up  to  public 
scorn  because  they  dared  to  speak  their  opinions  of  the  aboli- 
tionists ;  and  ultimately,  in  the  course  of  a  year  it  became 
decidedly  an  abolition  paper  of  the  fiercest  sort,  and  religion 
was  pressed  into  its  service  as  a  mere  incident  and  auxiliary  to 
the  main  cause  of  abolitionism. 

The  mob  spirit  of  Alton  became  aroused.  The  people 
thought  that  they  had  nurtured  a  viper  to  bite  them  and  destroy 
their  peace.  The  pledge  of  Mr.  Lovejoy  was  remembered. 
He  was  urged  by  his  friends  to  desist  from  his  course,  but  no 
consideration  could  shake  his  inflexible  resolution.  He  only 
became  more  violent,  and  his  denunciations  more  personal.  A 
public  meeting  was  called  to  induce  him,  by  peaceable  means 
if  possible,  to  return  to  his  original  pledge.  A  committee  was 
appointed  to  wait  on  him,  and  call  his  attention  to  his  original 


236  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

promises.  He  denied  making  such  promises,  and  contended  for 
the  freedom  of  the  press,  and  his  right  to  unbounded  liberty  as 
one  of  its  conductors.  He  read  to  the  committee  a  long  homily 
on  mobs  ;  and  appeared  to  think  that  the  action  of  a  mob,  by 
creating  sympathy  for  him,  would  spread  his  renown,  and  im- 
mortalize his  labors.  The  positive  denial  of  a  minister  of  the 
gospel  of  what  hundreds  had  heard  him  declare,  increased  the 
rage  of  the  people,  which  was  blown  into  a  consuming  fury  by 
a  letter  which  appeared  in  the  "Plain  Dealer,"  in -which  the 
leading  men  of  Alton  were  denounced  because  they  did  not 
throw  themselves  into  the  breach,  and  protect  Mr.  Lovejoy  at 
the  risk  of  their  lives  in  conducting  a  press  employed  to  vilify 
themselves,  and  to  support  a  cause  which  they  believed  to  be 
fraught  with  injury  to  all  concerned.  The  people  assembled 
and  quietly  took  the  press  and  types  and  threw  them  into  the 
Mississippi.  It  now  became  manifest  to  all  rational  men  that 
the  "  Alton  Observer"  could  no  longer  be  published  in  Alton 
as  an  abolition  paper.  The  more  reasonable  of  the  abolitionists 
themselves  thought  it  would  be  useless  to  try  it  again.  How- 
ever, a  few  of  them,  who  were  most  violent,  seemed  to  think 
that  the  salvation  of  the  black  race  depended  upon  continuing 
the  publication  at  Alton.  They  called  a  private  meeting  to 
consult,  into  which  were  admitted  Messrs.  Godfrey  and  Gilman, 
and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hogan,  who  were  not  abolitionists.  All  ex- 
pressed their  opinions.  Some  were  for  re-establishing  the  press, 
and  sustaining  it  at  all  hazards.  Others  thought  it  would  be 
madness  to  make  the  attempt,  and  they  believed  that  the  efforts 
already  made  had  come  near  destroying  the  religious  feeling 
of  the  community,  and  breaking  up  the  peace  and  harmony  of 
the  churches.  Mr.  Lovejoy  complained  that  Mr.  Godfrey,  who 
was  a  leading  Presbyterian,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hogan,  had  de- 
clared that  if  the  "  Observer"  were  again  established  they  could 
do  nothing  to  protect  it  from  the  mob  ;  but  he  forgot  to  state 
that  these  gentlemen  could  not  recognize  as  the  cause  of  God 


HISTOEY  OF   ILLINOIS.  237 

that  which  had  done  so  much  evil.  They  had  seen  the  effect 
of  abolitionism  in  the  slave  States,  where,  instead  of  breaking 
the  fetters  of  the  slave,  it  had  increased  their  strength  and  se- 
verity. They  conscientiously  believed  that  abolitionism  was 
wrong — they  could  not  risk  their  lives  in  its  defence. 

The  majority,  however,  determined  to  re-establish  the  "  Ob- 
server" as  an  abolition  paper ;  and  as  preparatory  thereto,  they 
put  out  a  call  for  a  convention,  to  be  held  in  Upper  Alton,  on 
the  26th  of  October,  1837,  of  all  such  persons  in  Illinois  as 
were  opposed  to  slavery,  and  in  favor  of  free  discussion. ..  The 
convention  assembled ;  and  although  the  call  was  for  all  per- 
sons opposed  to  slavery,  yet  an  attempt  was  made  to  exclude 
all  who  would  not  avow  themselves  to  be  abolitionists,  all 
others  being  set  down  as  opposed  to  free  discussion.  The 
trustees  of  the  Presbyterian  church  would  not  allow  it  to  as- 
semble in  their  place  of  worship,  unless  all  were  allowed  to 
come  who  were  opposed  to  slavery.  This  was  finally  acceded 
to,  and  many  such  took  seats  in  the  convention.  A  committee 
was  appointed  to  prepare  business,  and  in  the  afternoon  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Beecher,  then  President  of  Illinois  College,  was  to 
preach  a  sermon  before  the  convention.  The  committee  of  two 
abolitionists  and  one  opposed  to  them,  made  a  majority  and 
minority  report,  and  President  Beecher  held  forth  in  a  violent 
harangue  against  slavery.  Mr.  Beecher  was  a  man  of  great 
learning  and  decided  talents  ;  but  he  belonged  to  the  class  of 
reformers  who  disregard  all  considerations  of  policy  and  expe- 
diency. He  believed  slavery  to  be  a  sin  and  a  great  evil,  and 
his  indignant  and  impatient  soul  could  not  await  God's  own 
good  time  to  overthrow  it,  by  acts  of  his  providence  working 
continual  -change  and  revolution  in  the  affairs  of  men.  He  con- 
tended that  slavery  was  wrong,  sinfully  and  morally  wrong, 
and  ought  not  to  be  borne  with  an  instant.  No  Constitution 
could  protect  it.  If  the  Constitution  sanctioned  iniquity,  the 
Constitution  was  wrong  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  could  not  be 


238  msTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

binding  upon  the  people  of  this  country.  For  his  part,  he  did 
not  sanction  the  Constitution.  It  was  not  binding  on  him  ;  and 
•whilst  it  tolerated  slavery  it  could  not  be.  Several  other 
speeches  of  a  like  nature  were  made  on  the  same  side,  which 
were  answered  by  Usher  F.  lander,  the  Attorney  General,  and 
by  the  Eev.  Mr.  Hogan. 

The  next  day  an  abolition  society  was  secretly  formed  at  the 
house  of  the  Eev.  Mr.  Hurlbut,  in  Upper  Alton,  believed  to  be 
the  first  ever  formed  in  Illinois.  Mr.  Beecher  was  appointed  to 
preach-  in  the  Upper  Alton  Presbyterian  church  on  the  following 
Sunday.  Here  his  lectures  against  slavery  were  continued  un- 
til Monday  evening.  No  outbreak  had  taken  place,  and  Upper 
Alton  was  looked  upon  as  conquered.  This  encouraged  a  sim- 
ilar effort  in  the  main  city  on  the  bank  of  the  river.  Accord- 
ingly, it  was  announced  that  on  Tuesday  Mr.  Beecher  would 
deliver  the  same  lectures  in  Lower  Alton  which  he  had  deliv- 
ered in  the  upper  town.  On  this  day  another  abolition  press 
was  expected  to  arrive  in  a  steamboat.  The  abolitionists  an- 
nounced that  they  were  organized  with  a  company  of  forty 
men,  armed  with  muskets,  fully  determined  and.  prepared  to 
defend  it  at  every  hazard.  The  people,  in  a  high  state  of  ex- 
citement, flocked  to  the  river  in  great  numbers.  The  steamboat 
came,  but  no  press  was  on  board.  The  evening  approached. 
Mr.  Beecher  was  to  deliver  his  address.  The  abolitionists  as- 
sembled at.the  church  under  arms.  Armed  to  the  teeth  with 
muskets  and  other  deadly  weapons,  they  were  seen  wending 
their  way  to  the  house  of  God ;  and  at  the  close  of  the  service, 
as  the  people  returned  to  their  homes,  the  moonlight  was  re- 
flected from  the  swords  and  guns  of  fifteen  members  of  the 
church,  stationed  in  the  vestibule.  Such  was  religion,  when 
made  the  mere  ally  and  auxiliary  of  fanaticism.  This  was  too 
much.  Men  could  not  endure  such  an  outrage.  I  do  not  apolo- 
gize for  mobs,  all  of  which  I  would  crush  forever,  in  every  part 
of  this  free  country.  But  no  language  can  be  loaded  with  suf- 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  239 

ficient  severity  for  the  fanatical  leaders  who,  by  their  violence, 
by  their  utter  disregard  of  honest  prejudices,  drove  a  peaceful 
community  to  a  temporary  insanity,  and  to  the  commission  of 
enormous  crimes. 

On  Wednesday  was  to  be  observed  that  peculiar  calm  which 
indicates  an  approaching  storm.  The  sayings  and  doings  of 
Tuesday  were  talked  over.  Many  who  before  had  taken  no 
part,  were  now  active  on  the  side  of  the  mob.  Indignation 
blazed  on  every  face.  As  no  outbreak  had  yet  occurred,  the 
abolitionists  believed  that  they  had  triumphed.  In  a  secret 
meeting,  they  determined  to  re-establish  the  press  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet.  The  people  could  not  bear  such  threatenings, 
and  now  the  waves  of  excitement  rolled  to  the  height  of  moun- 
tains. The  Rev.  Mr.  Hogan,  in  taking  the  side  he  did,  re- 
tained considerable  power  with  the  populace.  He  was  appealed 
to,  to  allay  the  threatening  storm.  He  called  twenty  or  thirty 
of  the  most  moderate  on  each  side,  to  a  meeting  at  his  counting- 
house.  One  party  seemed  willing  to  compromise  matters, 
and  bring  about  an  adjustment.  Mr.  Beecher,  at  the  head 
of  the  other,  was  unwilling  to  make  the  slightest  conces- 
sion. He  contended  for  all  their  abstract  rights,  and  demanded 
all  the  guarantees  of  the  government  and  the  Constitution,  at 
the  same  time  that  he  and  his  friends  were  contending  for  their 
right  to  trample  upon  both.  He  invoked  the  Constitution  for 
his  protection.  He  wanted  others  to  be  bound  by  it,  whilst 
he  refused  to  rendei  it  obedience  himself.  He  insisted  that 
all  that  he  claimed  should  be  awarded,  to  the  slightest  particu- 
lar. He  would  retract  nothing,  compromise  nothing,  and  no 
consideration  could  induce  him  to  accede  to  other  terms.  In 
all  this  Mr.  Beecher  displayed  that  heroic  obstinacy,  which, 
when  accompanied  by  good  sense  and  powerful  talents,  and 
working  with  the  natural  current  of  events,  has  overthrown  gov- 
ernments and  systems,  and  revolutionized  the  moral  and  almost 
the  physical  world.  But  here  it  was  exerted  in  a  cause  which 


240  HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

could  not  succeed,  at  least  at  that  time.  This  meeting  was 
about  to  adjourn,  when  it  was  proposed  and  resolved  to  appoint 
a  committee  to  devise  and  report  some  means  of  adjustment 
to  a  meeting  to  be  held  next  day  at  2  o'clock. 

The  committee  met,  and  it  was  stated  to  be  impossible,  after 
what  had  transpired,  for  Mr.  Lovejoy  to  continue  bis  paper.  A 
resolution  was  passed  proposing  any  other  editor,  and  for  Mr. 
Lovejoy  to  seek  some  other  field  of  labor,  which  was  reported 
to  the  meeting  next  day.  It  is  believed  that  Lovejoy  himself 
would  have  acceded  to  this  arrangement,  but  not  so  with  Mr. 
Beecher  and  his  other  friends.  Pride  and  obstinacy  were  both 
aroused  to  demand  a  triumph,  in  which  principle  was  less  con- 
sidered than  victory.  Had  they  made  the  least  concession,  the 
scene  which  followed,  resulting  in  the  death  of  two  human  be- 
ings, would  probably  never  have  taken  place.  The  hour  of  two 
having  arrived,  the  people  assembled  in  the  court-house,  and  the 
committee,  by  their  chairman,  made  their  report,  one  calculated 
to  still  the  troubled  elements.  Mr.  Linder  made  some  remarks 
calculated  to  restore  peace,  and  prepared  the  large  meeting  then 
assembled  to  calmly  consider  the  exceedingly  serious  matters 
then  before  them. 

Mr.  Lovejoy  now  arose,  and  commenced  his  speech,  which 
was  very  mild  and  affecting,  in  which  he  deprecated  the  action 
of  the  meeting  and  the  report  of  the  committee.  He  said  he 
had  thought  of  leaving  Alton  and  going  elsewhere,  but  a  voice 
came  to  him  from  the  east,  urging  him  to  remain ;  here  he  would 
stay ;  he  could  not  leave  his  post,  without  being  pursued  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  to  his  destruction.  The  people  might  mob  him, 
or  do  anything  they  pleased ;  he  could  not,  and  he  would  not 
be  driven  away ;  he  would  live  there,  and  die  there.  The  Spirit 
of  God  urged  him  to  contend  for  his  rights,  and  for  a  holy  cause. 
He  denied  that  he  had  ever  given  any  pledges,  and  called  on 
Mr.  Hogan  to  sustain  him  in  this  denial.  He  never  had  yield- 
ed his  rights  (he  had  forgotten  his  flight  from  St.  Louis),  he 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  241 

never  -would  yield  them,  and  he  would  die  contending  for 
them. 

Mr.  Lovejoy  closed  his  remarks  in  a  state  of  great  excite- 
ment, and  the  meeting  was  quite  in  an  uproar,  when  Mr.  Hogan 
rose,  and  endeavored  to  throw  some  oil  on  the  troubled  waters. 
He  said  that  the  meeting  had  been  convened,  not  to  consider 
each  man's  abstract  rights,  but  to  inquire  into  the  doctrine  of 
expediency,  and  how  far  we  could  relinquish  the  plea  of  right 
for  the  sake  of  peace.  The  great  apostle  had  said,  All  things 
are  lawful  for  me  ;  but  all  things  are  not  expedient.  If  Paul 
yielded  to  the  law  of  expediency,  would  it  be  wrong  for  them, 
for  Mr.  Lovejoy  also,  following  his  example  7  The  Spirit  of 
God  did  not  pursue  Paul  to  his  destruction  for  thus  acting ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  had  commended  his  course.  Paul  had  never 
taken  up  arms  to  propagate  the  religion  of  his  master,  nor  to 
defend  himself  against  the  attacks  of  his  enemies.  The  people 
of  Damascus  were  opposed  to  Paul,  but  did*he  argue  with  the 
populace  the  question  of  his  legal  rights  ?  Did  he  tell  them 
that  he  was  a  Roman  citizen,  and  would  do  and  say  what  he 
pleased  ?  Did  he  say,  I  am  a  minister  of  Christ,  and  must  not 
leave  the  work  of  my  master,  to  flee  before  the  face  of  a  mob*  ? 
No ;  he  quietly  let  himself  down  in  a  basket,  outside  of  the 
wall,  and  departed  for  another  field  of  labor.  And  God  com- 
mended and  blessed  him  for  his  wisdom  and  humility.  Mr. 
Hogan  expressed  himself  strongly  in  favor  of  peace,  and  hoped 
all  present  would  yield  something  of  their  determinations  to  se- 
cure it. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Graves  next  addressed  the  meeting.  He  wished 
to  allude  to  the  pledge  of  Mr.  Lovejoy,  so  much  spoken  of.  Mr. 
Lovejoy  had  never  given  such  a  pledge ;  he  could  not  give  it, 
and  he  appealed  to  Mr.  Hogan  to  bear  him  out  in  the  assertion. 
He  commended  Mr.  Lovejoy  for  his  firmness ;  he  could  make 
no  compromise ;  it  was  in  vain  to  propose  one. 

Mr.  Hogan  then  repeated  what  Lovejoy  had  said  at  the  first 
11 


242  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

meeting.  Mr.  Graves  admitted  that  Lovejoy  had  made  such 
statements,  but  they  were  not  binding.  Mr.  Lovejoy  was  not 
an  abolitionist  at  the  time,  nor  was  he  himself  one  then.  Since 
that  time,  God  had  opened  their  eyes  to  see  the  great  wicked- 
ness of  slavery.  They  now  felt  it  a  duty  to  oppose  it.  If  they 
had  given  such  a  pledge,  they  had  sinned  against  God,  and  ought 
to  repent  of  it  and  forsake  it.  Their  decision  was  unalterably 
made ;  they  might  die,  but  they  could  not  compromise  the  per- 
formance of  duty. 

By  such  specious  arguments,  many  good  men  frequently  de- 
lude themselves.  These  men  had  worked  themselves  up  to  a 
most  heroical  resolution,  and  indeed  a  generous  mind  finds  much 
to  admire  in  their  inflexible  obstinacy.  It  was  the  self-sacrificing 
spirit  of  the  martyr  and  the  patriot ;  and  although  we  may  dis- 
agree with  them,  we  cannot  withhold  our  admiration  from  men 
who  are  nobly  wrong,  whilst  we  despise  him  who  is  meanly 
right.  9 

The  abolition  press  was  expected  to  arrive  next  day  after  this 
meeting,  but  it  did  not  come.  An  outbreak  was  now  confident- 
ly looked  for ;  all  business  was  suspended ;  nothing  was  talked 
of  among  the  populace  but  the  efforts  of  the  abolitionists.  These 
last  armed  themselves,  formed  a  military  company,  and  elected 
their  officers ;  and  they  mounted  guard  every  night,  in  expecta- 
tion of  the  arrival  of  the  boat  from  below  with  the  fatal  press. 
This  great  matter  of  discord  arrived  on  the  next  Monday  night, 
and  was  removed  on  Tuesday  morning  to  the  stone  warehouse 
of  Godfrey  Gilman  &  Co.,  where  its  friends  were  assembled 
with  arms  to  guard  it.  On  Tuesday  every  one  knew  of  its 
arrival,  and  the  citizens  were  goaded  on  to  madness  by  the 
taunts  and  threats  of  the  abolitionists.  They  were  told  that 
they  dare  not  touch  the  press,  that  powder  and  lead  were  not 
mere  playthings,  that  the  abolitionists  were  now  organized  by 
authority,  and  were  supplied  with  thirty  rounds  of  cartridges, 
and  that  the  mob  should  feel  their  virtue.  These  threatenings 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  243 

were  doubtless  made  against  the  wishes  of  the  leaders,  but  they 
served  powerfully  to  augment  the  spirit  of  rebellion. 

Towards  evening,  the  excitement  in  the  city  had  reached  a 
pitch  which  made  it  evident  to  all  that  a  violent  struggle  was 
soon  to  come,  and  blood  be  shed.  The  press  was  in  the  ware- 
house ;  the  abolitionists,  and  some  others  who  were  not  aboli- 
tionists, were  assembled  with  powder  and  ball  to  defend  4t  unto 
death.  Between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  on  Tuesday  night,  a  mob 
assembled  in  front  of  the  warehouse,  and  demanded  the  press 
to  be  given  up  to  them.  The  night  was  clear  and  beautiful,  the 
moon  not  quite  risen,  but  so  clear  and  bright  was  the  sky,  that 
both  parties  were  distinctly  visible  during  the  parley.  All  crea- 
tion seemed  to  smile,  and  everything  seemed  divine  but  man, 
who  that  beautiful  night  was  converted  by  his  raging  and  surg- 
ing passions  into  a  demon  of  obstinacy  on  the  one  side,  and  of 
destruction  on  the  other.  The  assailed  party  returned  for  an- 
swer, that  they  were  well  provided  with  arms  and  ammunition, 
and  would  defend  the  press  to  the  last  extremity.  The  house 
was  then  assailed  with  a  shower  of  stones,  and  the  mob  endeav- 
ored to  carry  it  by  storm.  Some  one  in  the  building  fired  from 
the  second  story.  This  shot  was  fatal  to  a  young  man  by  the 
name  of  Bishop,  producing  almost  instant  death.  Some  of  those 
in  the  house  afterwards  stated,  that  this  first  shot  was  fired  by 
Lovejoy.  Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  the  result  was  terrible ; 
for,  as  the  populace  bore  the  young  man  away,  loud  and  bitter 
were  their  imprecations,  and  the  death  of  all  in  the  house  was 
boldly  threatened  by  the  mob. 

Some  went  to  the  magazine  for  powder,  to  blow  up  the  build- 
ing ;  others  procured  ladders  to  set  the  roof  on  fire ;  but  by  far 
the  greater  number  retired  to  the  neighboring  grog-shops,  to  re- 
enforce  their  courage ;  and  then  returned  to  the  assault,  with 
their  hot  blood  made  hotter  still,  by  the  power  of  intoxication. 
The  bells  of  the  city  were  loudly  rung,  and  horns  were  blown, 
to  assemble  yet  a  greater  multitude.  Armed  men  everywhere 


244:  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

came  rushiug  to  the  scene  of  action.  Some  were  urging  on  the 
mob,  and  others  sought  to  alloy  the  tumult. 

The  ladders  were  placed  on  the  vacant  space,  on  the  southern 
side  of  the  building ;  one  man  mounted  with  a  torch  to  fire  the 
roof.  There  were  no  windows  on  this  side,  from  which  the 
party  within  could  fire  at  him  as  he  ascended.  At  this  time 
Mr.  Lovejoy  came,  from  the  door  fronting  the  river,  around  the 
corner  of  the  building,  and  fired  at  the  crowd.  His  shot  did 
not  take  effect,  and  he  instantly  retreated  into  the  building,  where 
he  urged  his  companions  on  to  an  attack,  and  upbraided  them 
for  their  cowardice  in  refusing.  A  young  man  by  the  name  of 
West,  seeing  the  building  on  fire,  ascended  the  ladder  with  a 
bucket  of  water,  and  extinguished  the  flames.  Whilst  he  was 
so  engaged,  Mr.  Lovejoy  again  made  his  appearance  from  the 
same  place,  again  fired  without  effect,  and  returned  to  the  build- 
ing. Meanwhile,  several  guns  were  fired  by  the  mob  and  sev- 
eral by  the  party  in  the  house  through  the  windows,  but  all 
without  effect  on  either  side. 

The  mob  still  increased.  The  ferocity  grew  upon  it  in  pro- 
portion to  the  increase  of  its  numbers  and  strength.  Another 
attempt  was  made  to  fire  the  house,  when  Mr.  Lovejoy  and 
one  of  his  companions  made  their  appearance  from  the  same 
door.  The  former  shots  from  that  quarter,  had  drawn  attention 
to  this  door,  and  when  the  figures  of  two  men  were  seen  to 
emerge  from  it,  one  of  them  to  raise  his  gun  to  fire  again,  they 
were  fired  upon  by  the  mob  with  fatal  precision ;  one  of  them 
being  wounded  in  the  leg,  and  the  other,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lovejoy, 
mortally ;  having  only  time  to  exclaim,  "My  God !  I  am  shot !" 
before  he  expired.  With  the  fall  of  the  chief  or  master  spirit, 
the  sinking  courage  of  his  party  seemed  utterly  to  die  away. 
A  general  firing  was  now  kept  up  by  the  mob ;  the  roof  of  the 
building  was  in  flames,  and  the  party  within  seemed  to  expect 
nothing  less  than  utter  destruction.  In  this  extremity  they 
were  induced  to  surrender  the  obnoxious  press.  They  were 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  245 

permitted  to  make  a  hurried  escape  down  the  river  bank,  their 
retreat  being  accelerated  by  several  guns  fired  over  their  heads. 
The  press  was  again  thrown  into  the  river. 

After  the  violence  of  feeling  had  somewhat  subsided,  both 
parties  were  indicted  for  their  crimes  arising  out  of  these  trans- 
actions, and  all  were  acquitted ;  making  it  a  matter  of  record, 
that  in  fact  the  abolitionists  had  not  provoked  an  assault ;  that 
there  had  been  no  mob ;  and  that  no  one  had  been  killed  or 
wounded. 

Previous  to  the  year  1840,  other  mobs  were  rife  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  State.  The  people  there  had  settled  without 
title,  upon  the  public  lands  of  the  United  States,  which  were 
then  neither  surveyed  nor  in  market,  and  they  had  made  valu- 
able improvements  on  these  lands,  by  building  mills  worth  ten 
thousand  dollars,  opening  farms,  frequently  of  four  or  five  hun- 
dred acres,  and  whole  villages  of  six  or  eight  hundred  inhab- 
itants, were  built  on  them.  By  a  conventional  law  of  each 
neighborhood,  the  settlers  were  all  pledged  to  protect  each  other 
in  the  amount  of  their  respective  claims.  But  there  were 
mean  men,  who  disregarded  these  conventional  arrangements. 
Such  as  these  belonged  to  that  very  honest  fraternity,  who 
profess  to  regulate  all  their  dealings  by  the  law  of  the  land. 
Such  men  had  but  little  regard  for  public  opinion  or  abstract 
right ;  and  their  consciences  did  not  restrain  them  from  "jump- 
ing" a  neighbor's  claim,  if  they  could  be  sustained  by  law  and 
protected  against  force.  It  soon  became  apparent  to  every 
one,  that  actual  force  was  the  only  protection  for  this  descrip- 
tion of  property.  And  although  the  most  of  the  settlers  were 
from  the  eastern  States ;  from  the  land  of  steady  habits,  where 
mobs  are  regularly  hated  and  denounced,  and  all  unlawful  fight- 
ing held  in  abhorrence ;  yet  seeing  themselves  left  without  le- 
gal protection,  and  subject  to  the  depredations  of  the  dishonor- 
able and  unscrupulous,  they  resolved  to  protect  themselves 
with  force.  Many  were  the  riots  and  mobs  in  every  county, 


246  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

arising  from  this  state  of  things.  Every  neighborhood  was  sig- 
nalised by  some  brawl  of  the  kind.  The  old  peaceful,  staid, 
puritan  Yankee,  walked  into  a  fight  in  defence  of  his  claim,  or 
that  of  his  neighbor,  just  as  if  he  had  received  a  regular  back- 
woods education  in  the  olden  times.  It  was  curious  to  witness 
this  change  of  character  with  the  change  of  position,  hi  emerg- 
ing from  a  government  of  strict  law  to  one  of  comparative  an- 
archy. The  readiness  with  which  our  puritan  population  from 
the  East  adopted  the  mobocratic  spirit,  is  evidence  that  men  are 
the  same  everywhere  under  the  same  circumstances.  That 
which  any  man  will  do,  depends  more  upon  his  position  upon 
the  laws  and  government,  and  upon  the  administration  of  the 
laws,  than  to  mental  or  physical  constitution,  or  any  peculiar 
trait  of  character  or  previous  training. 

Then  again  the  northern  part  of  the  State  was  not  destitute 
of  its  organized  bands  of  rogues,  engaged  in  murders,  robberies, 
horse-stealing,  and  in  making  and  passing  counterfeit  money. 
These  rogues  were  scattered  all  over  the  north ;  but  the  most 
of  them  were  located  in  the  counties  of  Ogle,  Winnebago,  Lee, 
and  De  Kalb.  In  the  county  of  Ogle,  they  were  so  numerous, 
strong,  and  well-organized,  that  they  could  not  be  convicted  for 
their  crimes.  By  getting  some  of  their  numbers  on  the  juries, 
by  producing  hosts  of  witnesses  to  sustain  their  defence  by  per- 
jured evidence,  and  by  changing  the  venue  from  one  county  to 
another,  and  by  continuances  from  term  to  term,  and  by  the 
inability  of  witnesses  to  attend  from  time  to  time  at  a  distant 
and  foreign  county,  they  most  generally  managed  to  be  acquit- 
ted. At  the  spring  term,  1841,  seven  of  them  were  confined 
in  the  Ogle  county  jail  for  trial.  The  judge  and  the  lawyers 
had  assembled  at  the  little  village  of  Oregon,  preparatory  to 
holding  the  court.  The  county  had  just  completed  a  new  court- 
house, in  which  court  was  to  be  held  for  the  first  time  the  next 
day.  The  jail  stood  near  it,  in  which  were  the  prisoners.  The 
rogues  assembled  in  the  night,  and  set  the  court-house  on  fire, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  247 

in  the  hope  that  as  the  prisoners  would  have  to  be  removed 
from  the  jail,  they  might  in  the  hurry  and  confusion  of  the  peo- 
ple in  attending  to  the  fire,  make  their  escape.  The  whole  pop- 
ulation were  awakened  at  a  late  hour  of  a  dark  and  stormy 
night,  to  see  the  lurid  flames  bursting  from  the  roof  and  win- 
dows of  their  newly-erected  temple  of  justice.  The  building 
was  entirely  consumed,  but  none  of  the  prisoners  escaped. 

This  produced  a  great  excitement  in  the  country,  three  of  the 
prisoners  were  tried,  convicted,  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for 
a  year.  But  they  managed  to  get  one  of  their  confederates  on 
the  jury,  who  refused  to  agree  to  a  verdict,  until  the  eleven 
others  had  threatened  to  lynch  him  in  the  jury  room.  The 
other  prisoners  obtained  changes  of  venue,  and  were  never  con- 
victed. They  all  broke  out  of  jail  and  made  their  escape.  The 
honest  and  substantial  portion  of  the  people  were  now  deter- 
mined to  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands ;  they  were  deter- 
mined that  delays,  insufficient  jails,  changes  of  venue,  hung 
juries,  and  perjured  evidence,  should  no  longer  screen  the 
rogue  from  punishment.  And  here  it  is  to  be  remarked  that 
the  new  counties,  such  as  Ogle,  were  so  poor  in  revenue,  and 
so  much  in  debt,  their  orders  at  so  great  a  discount,  that  they 
were  not  able  to  build  good  jails ;  and  the  other  counties  which 
had  them,  refused  to  receive  prisoners  from  the  new  counties, 
unless  the  cost  of  their  keeping  were  paid  in  advance.  The 
people  formed  themselves  into  regulating  companies,  both  in 
Ogle  and  Winnebago  counties,  and  proceeding  in  a  summary 
way,  they  whipped  some  of  the  most  notorious  rogues,  and 
ordered  others  into  banishment.  Amongst  those  who  had  been 
ordered  away,  were  the  family  of  the  Driscolls, — the  old  man 
and  several  of  his  sons.  The  old  man  and  some  of  his  sons  had 
been  in  the  Ohio  penitentiary,  and  made  their  escape  from  it. 
The  old  man  was  a  stout,  well-built,  hardened,  deliberate  man, 
and  his  sons  had  more  than  common  boldness  in  the  commis- 
sion of  crime.  This  family  were  determined  not  to  be  driven 


248  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

away,  and  to  this  end  they  and  several  of  their  confederates 
held  a  private  meeting,  in  which  they  resolved  to  strike  terror 
into  the  regulators,  by  threatening  death  to  all  the  leading  men 
in  their  ranks,  and  by  assassinating  their  captain.  Some  of  the 
Driscolls  went  to  the  house  of  Capt.  Campbell,  who  was  a  cap- 
tain of  the  regulators,  just  after  dark,  of  a  Sunday  evening,  just 
as  the  family  had  returned  from  church,  and  pretending  to  be 
strangers  inquiring  their  way,  they  called  Capt.  Campbell  out 
into  his  door-yard,  and  there  deliberately  shot  him  dead  in  the 
presence  of  his  wife  and  children.  Before  day  next  morning, 
the  news  of  the  murder  had  run  over  the  country  like  lightning. 
The  people  early  assembled  at  the  house  of  the  murdered  man, 
in  White  Rock  Grove,  in  great  numbers ;  and  there  seeing  the 
dead  victim  of  this  secret  assassination,  his  blood  yet  fresh  upon 
the  ground,  his  wife  and  children  in  frantic  agony,  they  were 
thrown  into  a  wild  uproar  of  excitement  and  frenzy,  somewhat 
like  that  which  seizes  upon  a  herd  of  cattle,  upon  seeing  and 
scenting  the  blood  of  a  slaughtered  bullock.  They  spread  out 
all  over  the  country,  in  search  of  the  murderers.  The  actual 
murderers  who  had  done  the  deed  had  escaped,  but  they  seized 
upon  the  old  man  Driscoll,  and  the  people  of  Winnebago  coun- 
ty, coming  down  next  day  afterwards,  had  seized  upon  two  of 
his  sons.  The  prisoners  were  taken  to  Washington  Grove,  in 
Ogle  county,  for  trial.  The  old  man  and  one  of  his  sons  were 
convicted  as  being  accessories  to  the  murder,  and  the  other  was 
acquitted.  The  trial  occupied  nearly  a  whole  day  before  the 
whole  band  of  regulators,  composed  \>f  about  three  hundred 
men,  many  of  them  being  magistrates,  and  some  of  them  min- 
isters of  the  gospel ;  and  is  described  as  having  been  conducted 
with  much  solemnity  and  seriousness.  The  condemned  were 
sentenced  to  be  shot  within  an  hour ;  a  minister  of  the  gospel 
who  was  present,  prayed  with  them  and  administered  to  them 
the  consolations  of  religion ;  and  then  they  were  brought  out 
for  execution.  They  were  placed  in  a  kneeling  position,  with 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  249 

bandages  over  their  eyes,  and  were  fired  upon  by  the  whole 
company  present,  that  there  might  be  none  who  could  be  legal 
witnesses  of  the  bloody  deed.  About  one  hundred  of  these 
men  were  afterwards  tried  for  murder  and  acquitted.  These 
terrible  measures  put  an  end  to  the  ascendancy  of  rogues  in 
Ogle  county. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  mobocratic  spirit  origin- 
ates in  two  causes.  First,  the  laws  fail  to  provide  remedies  for 
great  evils.  The  administration  of  the  laws,  owing  to  the  checks 
and  balances  in  the  Constitution,  intended  for  the  protection 
of  innocence  and  liberty  against  arbitrary  power,  is  necessarily 
slow  and  uncertain.  In  framing  our  governments,  it  seemed  to 
be  the  great  object  of  our  ancestors  to  secure  the  public  lib- 
erty by  depriving  government  of  power.  Attacks  upon  liberty 
were  not  anticipated  from  any  considerable  portion  of  the  peo- 
ple themselves.  It  was  not  expected  that  one  portion  of  the 
people  would  attempt  to  play  the  tyrant  over  another.  And 
if  such  a  thing  had  been  thought  of,  the  only  mode  of  putting 
it  down  was  to  call  out  the  militia,  who  are,  nines  times  out  of 
ten,  partisans  on  one  side  or  the  other  in  the  contest.  The 
militia  may  be  relied  upon  to  do  battle  in  a  popular  service, 
but  if  mobs  are  raised  to  drive  out  horse  thieves,  to  put 
down  claim-jumpers,  to  destroy  an  abolition  press,  or  to  expel 
an  odious  sect,  the  militia  cannot  be  brought  to  act  against 
them  efficiently.  The  people  cannot  be  used  to  put  down 
the  people.  The  day  may  unfortunately  come,  when  the  States, 
as  well  as  the  nation,  will  be  compelled  to  keep  up  a  regular 
force. 

In  fact,  the  principal  strength  of  government  in  free  coun- 
tries is,  that  the  mass  of  the  people  do  not  need  government 
at  all.  Each  man  governs  himself,  and,  if  need  be,  assists  to 
govern  his  neighbor.  Religious  principles  and  feelings  incline 
to  justice.  Industry  inclines  to  peace.  Early  training  begets 
submission  to  parents,  and  then  to  the  magistrates  and  laws  ; 

11* 


250  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

making  government  quite  possible,  without  much  authority  in 
the  magistrate.  With  the  assistance  of  the  well-affected,  hon- 
est citizens,  who  are  supposed  to  make  a  large  majority  of  the 
people,  the  magistrate  is  able  to  bring  to  punishment  the 
lesser  sort  of  rogues,  who  belong  to  no  great  combination,  and 
sometimes  succeeds  in  breaking  up  the  strongest  combinations. 
But  if  an  association  of  bankers,  of  public  officers  who  are 
charged  with  public  affairs  to  disburse  money,  swindle  the 
public,  or  if  a  number  of  rogues  associate  to  depredate  upon 
the  community,  we  are  apt  to  find  the  old  Athenian  definition 
of  law  still  to  be  true,  "  that  law  is  a  cobweb  to  catch  the 
small  flies,  but  the  great  ones  break  through  it."  The  true 
reason  why  the  great  offenders  and  combinations  of  criminals  so 
frequently  go  unpunished  is,  that  they  are  too  strong  for  the 
ordinary  machinery  of  government,  single  handed,  without  a 
vigorous  support  of  that  government  by  the  orderly  and  well- 
disposed.  The  government  is  too  frequently  left  without  this 
support.  The  peaceable  and  orderly  many  are  so  engaged  in 
separate  and  selfish,  but  lawful  projects  of  their  own,  that  it  is 
hard  to  get  them  to  take  part  in  putting  down  the  disorderly 
few,  except  when  the  disorders  become  intolerable  and  insuffer- 
able ;  and  then  the  power  of  the  many  is  exercised,  as  the 
limbs  of  the  body  are  exercised  in  a  spasm,  which  waits  for 
neither  law  nor  government. 

The  second  cause  of  mobs  is,  that  men  engaged  in  unpopular 
projects  expect  more  protection  from  the  laws  than  the  laws 
are  able  to  furnish  in  the  face  of  a  popular  excitement.  They 
read  in  the  Constitution  the  guaranty  of  their  rights,  and  they 
insist  upon  the  enjoyment  of  these  rights  to  the  fullest  extent, 
no  matter  what  may  be  the  extent  of  popular  opposition  against 
them.  In  such  a  case,  it  may  happen  that  the  whole  people 
may  be  on  one  side,  and  merely  the  public  officers  on  the  other. 
The  public  officers  are  appealed  to  for  protection,  when  it  is 
apparent  that,  being  separated  from  the  strength  of  the  people, 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  251 

they  form  the  mere  dead  skeleton  of  a  government.  The 
men  engaged  in  projects  which  may  be  odious  to  the  people, 
call  upon  government  for  that  protection  which  it  cannot  give. 
For  if  government  cannot  suppress  an  unpopular  band  of  horse 
thieves,  associated  to  commit  crime,  how  is  it  to  suppress  a 
popular  combination  which  has  the  people  on  its  side  ?  I  am 
willing  enough  to  acknowledge  that  all  this  is  wrong,  but  how 
is  the  evil  to  be  avoided  ?  The  Alton  mob  was  provoked  by 
the  abolitionists.  They  read  in  the  Constitution  that  they  had 
a  right  to  print  and  publish  whatever  they  pleased,  being  re- 
sponsible to  the  laws  for  the  abuse  of  that  right ;  and  they 
planted  themselves  here  as  firmly  as  if  government  was  omni- 
potent, or  as  if  they  intended,  by  way  of  experiment,  to  test 
the  power  of  government  to  put  down  the  people,  on  whom 
alone  it  rests  for  support.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  Mor- 
mons. Scattered  through  the  country,  they  might  have  lived  in 
peace,  like  other  religious  sects,  but  they  insisted  upon  their 
right  to  congregate  in  one  great  city.  The  people  were  de- 
termined that  they  should  not  exercise  this  right ;  and  it  will 
be  seen  in  the  sequel  of  this  history,  that  in  their  case,  as  in 
every  other  where  large  bodies  of  the  people  are  associated  to 
accomplish  with  force  an  unlawful  but  popular  object,  the  gov- 
ernment is  powerless  against  such  combinations.  This  brings 
us  to  treat  of  the  Mormons. 

The  people  called  Mormons,  but  who  call  themselves  "  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  latter  day  saints,"  began  to  figure  in 
the  politics  of  this  State  in  1840.  They  were  a  religious  sect, 
the  followers  of  a  man  familiarly  called  "  Joe  Smith,"  who  was 
claimed  by  them  to  be  a  prophet.  This  man  was  born  at  Sha- 
ron, Windsor  County,  Vermont,  on  the  23d  of  December,  1805. 
His  parents  were  in  humble  circumstances,  and  gave  their  son 
but  an  indifferent  education.  When  he  first  began  to  act  the 
prophet,  he  was  ignorant  of  almost  everything  which  belonged 
to  science  ;  but  he  made  up  in  natural  cunning  and  in  power  of 


252  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

invention  and  constructiveness,  for  many  deficiencies  of  educa- 
tion. When  he  was  ten  years  old,  his  parents  removed  to 
Palmyra,  Wayne  County,  New  York.  Here,  his  extreme 
youth  was  spent  in  an  idle,  vagabond  life,  roaming  the  woods, 
dreaming  of  buried  treasures,  and  exerting  himself  to  learn  the 
art  of  finding  them,  by  the  twisting  of  a  forked  stick  in  his 
hands,  or  by  looking  through  enchanted  stones.  He,  and  his 
father  before  him,  were  what  are  called  "  water  witches,"  al- 
ways ready  to  point  out  the  ground  where  wells  might  be  dug 
and  water  found,  and  many  are  the  anecdotes  of  his  early  life, 
giving  bright  promise  of  future  profligacy.  Such  was  Joe 
Smith  when  he  was  found  by  Sidney  Rigdon,  who  was  a  man 
of  considerable  talents  and  information.  Rigdon  had  become 
possessed  of  a  religious  romance,  written  by  a  Presbyterian 
clergyman  in  Ohio,  then  dead,  which  suggested  to  him  the  idea 
of  starting  a  new  religion.  It  was  agreed  that  Joe  Smith 
should  be  put  forward  as  a  prophet ;  and  the  two  devised  a 
story  that  golden  plates  had  been  found,  buried  in  the  earth, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Palmyra,  containing  a  record  inscribed 
on  them,  in  unknown  characters,  which,  when  decyphered  by 
the  power  of  inspiration,  gave  the  history  of  the  ten  lost  tribes 
of  Israel,  in  their  wanderings  through  Asia  into  America,  where 
they  had  settled  and  flourished,  and  where,  in  due  time,  Christ 
came  and  preached  his  gospel  to  them,  appointed  his  twelve 
apostles,  and  was  crucified  here,  nearly  in  the  same  manner  in 
which  he  was  crucified  in  Jerusalem.  The  record  then  pre- 
tended to  give  the  history  of  the  American  Christians,  for  a  few 
hundred  years,  until  the  great  wickedness  of  the  people  called 
down  the  judgments  of  God  «pon  them,  which  resulted  in  their 
extermination.  Several  nations  and  people,  from  the  Isthmus 
of  Darien  to  the  extremities  of  North  America,  were  arrayed 
against  each  other  in  war.  At  last  the  great  battle  of  Cumorah 
was  fought  in  Palmyra,  New  York,  between  the  Lamanites,  who 
were  the  heathen  of  this  continent,  and  the  Nephites,  who  were 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  253 

the  Christians,  in  which  battle  there  was  a  prodigious  slaughter 
— hundreds  of  thousands  being  killed  on  each  side.  The  na- 
tion of  the  Nephites  was  destroyed,  except  a  few  who  had  de- 
serted, and  a  few  who  had  escaped  into  the  south  country. 
Among  this  number  were  Mormon  and  his  son  Moroni,  who 
were  righteous  men,  and  who,  as  was  said,  were  directed  by  the 
Almighty  to  make  a  record  of  all  these  solemn  and  important 
events  on  plates  of  gold,  and  bury  them  in  the  earth,  to  be  dis- 
covered in  a  future  age,  fourteen  centuries  afterwards.  It  is 
needless  to  add,  that  the  pretended  translation  of  the  hierog- 
lyphics said  to  be  inscribed  on  these  pretended  plates,  was  no 
more  nor  less  than  the  religious  romance  already  spoken  of, 
but  which  now  appeared  as  the  book  of  Mormon. 

The  prophet  in  after-life  pretended  that  at  an  early  age  he 
became  much  concerned  about  the  salvation  of  his  soul.  He 
went  to  the  religious  meetings  of  many  sects  to  seek  informa- 
tion of  the  way  to  heaven ;  and  was  everywhere  told,  "  this  is 
the  way,  walk  ye  in  it."  He  reflected  upon  the  multitude  of 
doctrines  and  sects,  and  it  occurred  to  him  that  God  could  be 
the  author  of  but  one  doctrine,  and  own  but  one  church ;  he 
looked  amongst  all  the  sects  to  see  which  was  this  one  true 
church  of  Christ,-  but  he  could  not  decide ;  and  until  he  became 
satisfied,  he  could  not  be  contented.  His  anxious  desires  lead 
him  diligently  to  search  the  scriptures,  and  he  perused  the 
sacred  pages,  believing  the  things  that  he  read.  He  now  saw 
that  the  true  way  was  to  enquire  of  God,  and  then  there  was  a 
certainty  of  success.  He  therefore  retired  to  a  secret  place  in 
a  grove  near  his  father's  house,  and  kneeling  down,  began  to 
call  upon  the  Lord ;  darkness  gave  way,  and  he  prayed  with 
fervency  of  spirit.  Whilst  he  continued  praying  the  light  ap- 
peared to  be  gradually  descending  towards  him ;  and  as  it  drew 
nearer  it  increased  in  brightness  and  magnitude,  so  that  by  the 
time  it  reached  the  tops  of  the  trees,  the  whole  wilderness  for 
quite  a  distance  around,  was  illuminated  in  a  glorious  and  bril- 


254  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

liant  manner.  He  expected  the  leaves  of  the  trees  to  be  con- 
sumed, but  seeing  no  such  effect  of  the  light,  he  was  encouraged 
with  the  hope  to  endure  its  presence.  It  descended  slowly 
until  he  was  enveloped  in  the  midst  of  it.  Immediately  he  was 
caught  away  in  a  heavenly  vision,  and  saw  two  glorious  pe"rson- 
ages  alike  in  their  features ;  and  he  was  now  informed  that  his 
sins  were  forgiven.  Here  he  learned  that  none  of  the  churches 
then  in  being,  was  the  church  of  God ;  and  received  a  promise 
at  some  future  time  of  the  fulness  of  the  Gospel,  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  true  doctrine.  After  this,  being  still  young,  he  was 
entangled  in  the  vanities  of  the  world,  of  which  he  sincerely  and 
truly  repented. 

On  the  23d  of  September,  1823,  God  again  heard  his  prayers. 
His  mind  had  been  drawn  out  in  fervent  prayer  for  his  accept- 
ance with  God ;  and  for  a  knowledge  of  the  doctrines  of  Christ, 
according  to  promise,  in  the  former  vision.  While  he  was  thus 
pouring  out  his  desires,  on  a  sudden  a  light  burst  into  the  room 
like  the  light  of  day,  but  purer  and  more  glorious  in  appearance 
and  brightness ;  the  first  sight  of  it  was,  as  though  the  house 
had  been  filled  with  consuming  fire ;  this  occasioned  a  shock 
felt  to  the  extremities  of  his  body  ;  and  then  was  followed  by 
calmness  of  mind  and  overwhelming  rapture  of  joy,  when  in  a 
moment  a  personage  stood  before  him,  who,  notwithstanding 
the  light  seemed  to  be  surrounded  by  an  additional  glory,  which 
shone  with  increased  brilliancy.  This  personage  was  above  the 
ordinary  size  of  men,  his  raiment  was  perfectly  white,  and  had 
the  appearance  of  being  without  seam.  This  glorious  being  de- 
clared himself  to  be  an  angel  sent  to  announce  the  forgiveness 
of  his  sins,  and  to  answer  his  prayers  by  bringing  the  glad 
tidings,  that  the  covenant  of  God  with  ancient  Israel  concerning 
posterity,  was  at  last  about  to  be  fulfilled  ;  that  preparation  for 
the  second  coming  of  Christ,  was  speedily  to  commence  ;  that, 
the  fulness  of  the  Gospel  was  about  to  be  preached  in  peace 


HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS.  255 

i 

unto  all  nations,  that  a  people  might  be  prepared  for  the  millen- 
ium  of  universal  peace  and  joy. 

At  the  same  time  he  was  informed  that  he  had  been  called 
and  chosen  as  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God,  to  bring 
about  some  of  his  marvellous  purposes  in  this  glorious  dispen- 
sation. It  was  made  known  to  him  that  the  American  Indians 
were  a  remnant  of  Israel ;  that  when  they  first  came  here,  they 
were  an  enlightened  people,  having  a  knowledge  of  the  true 
God ;  that  the  prophets  and  inspired  writers  amongst  them  had 
been  required  to  keep  a  true  record  of  their  history,  which  had 
been:  handed  down  for  many  generations,  until  the  people  fell 
into  great  wickedness ;  when  nearly  all  of  them  were  destroy- 
ed, and  the  records  by  command  of  God,  were  safely  deposited 
to  preserve  them  from  the  hands  of  the  wicked,  who  sought  to 
destr6y  them.  If  faithful,  he  was  to  be  the  highly-favored  in- 
strument in  bringing  these  records  to  light. 

The  angel  now  disappeared,  leaving  him  in  a  state  of  perfect 
peace,  but  visited  him  several  times  afterwards,  instructing  him 
concerning  the  great  work  of  God  about  to  commence  on  earth. 
He  was  instructed  where  these  records  were  deposited,  and  re- 
quired to  go  immediately  to  view  them.  They  were  found  on 
the  side  of  a  hill,  slightly  buried  in  the  earth,  secured  in  a  stone 
box,  on  the  road  from  Palmyra  to  Canandaigua,  in  New  York, 
about  three  miles  from  the  village  of  Manchester.  The  records 
were  said  to  be  engraved  on  gold  plates  in  Egyptian  charac- 
ters ;  the  plates  were  of  the  thickness  of  tin,  bound  together 
like  a  book,  fastened  at  one  side  by  three  rings  which  run 
through  the  whole  and  formed  a  volume  about  six  inches  in 
thickness.  And  in  the  same  box  with  them  were  found  two 
stones,  transparent  and  clear  as  crystal,  the  Urim  and  Thummim, 
used  by  seers  in  ancient  times,  the  instruments  of  revelations 
of  things  distant,  past,  or  future. 

When  the  prophet  first  saw  these  things,  being  filled  with 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  standing  and  admiring,  the  same  angel  of 


256  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

i 

the  Lord  appeared  in  his  presence  and  said,  "  look !"  and  he  be- 
held the  devil  surrounded  by  a  great  train  of  his  associates. 
He  then,  after  receiving  further  directions  from  the  angel, 
started  home  to  his  father's  house  where  he  was  waylaid  by  two 
ruffians.  One  of  them  struck  him  with  a  club,  but  was  re- 
pulsed ;  but  they  followed  him  nearly  home  when  they  fled  for 
fear  of  detection.  The  news  of  his  discovery  got  abroad  ;  the 
new  prophet  was  the  sport  of  lies,  slanders,  and  mobs,  and  vain 
attempts  to  rob  him  of  his  plates.  He  removed  to  the  north- 
ern part  of  Pennsylvania,  where  he  commenced  ^with  the  aid  of 
inspiration  and  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  to  translate  the  plates. 
He  finished  a  part  which  is  called  the  Book  of  Mormon.  It  is 
pretended  that  Mormon  hid  all  the  old  records  up  in  the  hill 
of  Cumorah ;  but  had  first  made  an  abridgment  of  them,  which 
was  called  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  which  he  gave  to  his  son 
Moroni  to  finish.  Moroni  continued  to  serve  his  nation  for  a 
few  years,  and  continued  the  writings  of  his  father  until  after 
the  great  battle  of  Cumorah,  when  he  kept  himself  hid  ;  for  the 
Lamanites  sought  to  kill  every  Nephite  who  refused  to  deny 
-Christ.  The  story  is  remarkably  well  gotten  up,  and  may  yet 
unhappily  make  the  foundation  of  a  religion  which  may  roll 
back  upon  the  world  the  barbarism  of  eighteen  centuries  passed 
away.  Whilst  there  are  fools  and  knaves,  there  is  no  telling 
\  what  may  be  accomplished  by  such  a  religion. 

And  the  prophet  was  not  without  his  witnesses.  Oliver 
Cowdney,  Martin  Harris,  and  Daniel  Whiteman,  solemnly  cer- 
tifiy  "  that  we  have  seen  the  plates  which  contain  the  records ; 
that  they  were  translated  by  the  gift  and  power  of  God,  for  his 
voice  hath  declared  it  unto  us,  wherefore  we  know  of  a  surety 
that  the  work  is  true ;  and  we  declare  with  words  of  soberness 
that  an  angel  of  God  came  down  from  heaven  and  brought  and 
laid  before  our  eyes,  that  we  beheld  and  saw  the  plates  and  the 
engravings  thereon."  Eight  other  witnesses  certify  that  "  Jo- 
seph Smith,  the  translator,  had  shown  them  the  plates  spoken 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  257 

of,  which  had  the  appearance  of  gold ;  and  as  many  of  the  plates 
as  the  said  Smith  had  translated,  they  did  handle  with  their 
hands,  and  they  also  saw  the  engravings  thereon,  all  of  which 
had  the  appearance  of  ancient  work  and  curious  workmanship." 
The  most  probable  account  of  these  certificates  is,  that  the 
witnesses  were  in  the  conspiracy,  aiding  the  imposture ;  but  I 
have  been  informed  by  men  who  were  once  in  the  confidence 
of  the  prophet,  that  he  privately  gave  a  different  account  of  the 
matter.  It  is  related  that  the  prophet's  early  followers  were 
anxious  to  see  the  plates ;  the  prophet  had  always  given  out 
that  they  could  not  be  seen  by  the  carnal  eye,  but  must  be  spir- 
itually discerned ;  that  the  power  to  see  them  depended  upon 
faith,  and  was  the  gift  of  God,  to  be  obtained  by  fasting,  pray- 
er, mortification  of  the  flesh,  and  exercises  of  the  spirit ;  that 
so  soon  as  he  could  see  the  evidences  of  a  strong  and  lively  faith 
in  any  of  his  followers,  they  should  be  gratified  in  their  holy 
curiosity.  He  set  them  to  continual  prayer,  and  other  spiritual 
exercises,  to  acquire  this  lively  faith  by  means  of  which  the  hid- 
den things  of  God  could  be  spiritually  discerned ;  and  at  last, 
when  he  could  delay  them  no  longer,  he  assembled  them  in  a 
room,  and  produced  a  box,  which  he  said  contained  the  precious 
treasure.  The  lid  was  opened ;  the  witnesses  peeped  into  it, 
but  making  no  discovery,  for  the  box  was  empty,  they  said, 
"  Brother  Joseph,  we  do  not  see  the  plates."  The  prophet  an- 
swered them,  "  O  ye  of  little  faith !  how  long  will  God  bear 
with  this  wicked  and  perverse  generation  1  Down  on  your 
knees,  brethren,  every  one  of  you.  and  pray  God  for  the  forgive- 
ness of  your  sins,  and  for  a  holy  and  living  faith  which  cometh 
down  from  heaven."  The  disciples  dropped  to  their  knees,  and 
began  to  pray  in  the  fervency  of  their  spirit,  supplicating  God 
for  more  than  two  hours  with  fanatical  earnestness ;  at  the  end 
of  which  time,  looking  again  into  the  box,  they  were  now  per- 
suaded that  they  saw  the  plates.  I  leave  it  to  philosophers  to 
determine  whether  the  fumes  of  an  enthusiastic  and  fanatical 


258  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

imagination  are  thus  capable  of  blinding  the  mind  and  deceiv- 
ing the  senses  by  so  absurd  a  delusion. 

The  book  of  Mormon  pretended  to  reveal  the  fulness  of  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  he  delivered  it  to  his  people  in 
America.  It  was  to  be  brought  forth  by  the  power  of  God,  and 
carried  to  the  Gentiles,  of  whom  many  were  to  receive  it ;  and 
after  this  the  seed  of  Israel  were  to  be  brought  into  the  fold 
also.  It  was  pretended  that  pristine  Christianity  was  to  be  re- 
stored, with  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  the  gift  of  tongues,  with 
the  laying  on  of  hands  to  cure  all  manner  of  diseases.  Many 
were  the  pretended  prophets  which  this  sect  brought  forth. 
Many  of  the  disciples  spoke  an  outlandish  gibberish,  which  they 
called  the  unknown  tongue  ;  others  again  acted  as  interpreters 
of  this  jargon,  for  it  rarely  happened  that  he  who  was  gifted  to 
speak  in  the  unknown  tongue  was  able  to  understand  his  own 
communications  ;  and  many  brilliant  miracles  were  pretended 
to  be  wrought,  in  the  cure  of  diseases,  by  the  laying  on  of  hands 
and  the  prayer  of  faith. 

By  the  6th  of  April,  1830,  Joe  Smith  and  his  associates  had 
made  a  considerable  number  of  converts  to  the  new  religion, 
who  were  assembled  on  that  day  in  the  village  of  Manchester, 
and  formed  into  a  church.  Their  numbers  now  increased  rapid- 
ly, and  in  1833  they  removed  from  New  York  to  Jackson  Coun- 
ty, Missouri,  where  they  began  to  build  the  town  of  "  Indepen- 
dence." Here,  by  pretending  that  the  Lord  had  given  them  all 
that  country,  and  in  fact  the  whole  world,  they  being  his  saints, 
and  by  some  petty  offences,  and  by  their  general  tone  of  arro- 
gance, the  neighboring  people  became  much  excited  against 
them.  Some  of  them  were  ducked  in  the  river ;  some  were 
tarred  and  feathered,  and  others  killed  ;  and  the  whole  of  them 
were  compelled  to  remove  to  the  County  of  Clay,  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  Missouri  river.  They  also  had  a  place  of  gath- 
ering together  at  Kirtland,  near  Cleaveland,  in  the  State  of  Ohio. 
At  this  last  place  of  gathering,  Joe  Smith  established  himself; 


HISTOEY   OF   ILLINOIS.  259 

and  in  1836  a  solemn  assembly  was  held  there  of  several  hun- 
dred Mormon  elders,  who,  in  their  own  language, "  had  an  inter- 
esting time  of  it,  as  it  appeared  by  the  reports  of  the  elders  that 
the  work  of  God  had  greatly  increased  in  America,  in  England, 
Scotland,  and  Wales,  and  in  the  islands  of  the  sea." 

At  this  place  Joe  Smith  got  up  a  bank,  called  "  The  Kirtland 
Safety  Bank,"  of  which  he  was  president ;  and  the  notes  of  which 
were  made  to  resemble  the  notes  of  the  safety  fund  banks  of 
New  York.  The  bank  failed,  for  a  large  amount,  for  want  of 
capital  and  integrity  in  its  managers ;  and  its  failure  was  ac- 
companied by  more  than  ordinary  depravity.  The  residence 
of  the  prophet  at  this  place,  after  the  failure  of  the  bank,  became 
irksome  and  dangerous.  He  determined  to  leave  it,  and  accord- 
ingly, accompanied  by  his  apostles  and  elders,  for  he  had  apos- 
tles and  elders,  and  the  great  body  of  the  "  saints,"  he  shook  the 
dust  off  his  feet,  as  a  testimony  against  Ohio,  where  he  was 
about  to  be  persecuted,  and  departed  for  Missouri.  This  time, 
the  Mormons  settled  in  Caldwell  and  Davis  Counties  in  Mis- 
souri, far  in  the  north-west  part  of  the  State.  Here  they  pur- 
chased large  tracts  of  land  from  the  United  States,  and  built 
the  city  of  "  Far  West,"  and  many  smaller  towns.  Difficulties 
again  attended  them  in  their  new  place  of  residence.  They  did 
not  fail  to  display  here  the  usual  arrogance  of  their  pretensions, 
and  were  charged  by  the  neighboring  people  with  every  kind 
of  petty  villany.  In  a  few  years  the  quarrel  between  the  "  saints" 
and  the  Gentiles  became  utterly  irreconcilable.  The  Mormon 
leaders  declared  that  they  would  no  longer  submit  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  Missouri.  The  clerk  of  the  circuit  court,  being  a 
Mormon,  was  ordered  by  the  prophet  to  issue  no  more  writs 
against  the ';  saints ;"  and  about  this  time  Sidney  Rigdon  preach- 
ed before  the  prophet  a  Fourth  of  July  sermon,  called  "  The 
Salt  Sermon,"  in  which  he  held  forth  to  the  Mormons  that  the 
prophet  had  determined  no  longer  to  regard  the  laws  and  gov- 
ernment of  Missouri.  The  neighboring  people  of  Missouri  as- 


260  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

sembled  under  arms,  to  drive  the  Mormons  from  the  State. 
Armed  Mormon  parties  patrolled  the  country,  robbing  and  plun- 
dering the  inhabitants  ;  all  the  plunder  being  deposited  in  one 
place,  called  "  the  Lord's  treasury."  One  of  these  plundering 
parties  met  a  hostile  party,  commanded  by  Captain  Bogart,  who 
had  formerly  been  a  Methodist  preacher  in  Illinois.  He  had 
run  away  from  Illinois,  directly  after  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and 
was  the  same  Major  Bogart  heretofore  mentioned  as  command- 
ing a  battalion  of  Rangers  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  left  to  guard 
the  frontiers.  Bogart's  party  and  the  Mormons  came  to  a  battle, 
in  which  the  Mormons  were  defeated.  The  Mormons,  however, 
burnt  and  plundered  two  small  towns  belonging  to  their  ene- 
mies, and  plundered  all  the  neighboring  country.  At  last  Gov. 
Boggs  of  Missouri  called  out  a  large  body  of  militia,  and  order- 
ed that  the  Mormons  should  be  exterminated  or  driven  from 
the  State.  A  large  force  was  marched  to  their  country,  under 
Major-Gen.  Lucas  and  Brig.-Gen.  Doniphan,  where  the  Mor- 
mons were  all  assembled  under  arms,  with  the  declared  inten- 
ion  of  resisting  to  the  last  extremity.  They  were  soon  sur- 
rounded in  their  city  of  "  Far  West"  by  a  much  superior 
force,  and  compelled  to  surrender  at  discretion.  Much  plunder 
was  re-captured,  and  delivered  to  its  former  owners.  The  great 
body  of  the  Mormons,  in  fact  all  except  the  leaders,  were  dis- 
missed under  a  promise  to  leave  the  State.  The  leaders,  includ- 
ing the  prophet,  being  arrested,  were  tried  before  a  court-mar- 
tial, and  sentenced  to  be  shot  for  treason.  But  Gen.  Doniphan, 
being  a  sound  lawyer  and  a  man  of  sense,  knowing  that  such  B 
proceeding  was  utterly  unconstitutional  and  illegal,  by  boldly 
denouncing  and  firmly  remonstrating  against  this  arbitrary  mode 
of  trial  and  punishment,  saved  the  lives  of  the  prisoners.* 

*  This  is  the  same  Gen.  Doniphan  who,  as  Colonel  of  a  regiment  of 
Missouri  volunteers,  afterwards  conquered  Chihuahua,  and  gained  the 
splendid  victories  of  Bracito  and  Sacramento.  Among  all  the  officers  of 
the  Missouri  militia,  operating  against  the  Mormons,  Gen.  Doniphan 


.... 

HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  261 

The  leaders  were  then  carried  before  a  circuit  judge,  sitting 
as  an  examining  court,  and  were  committed  to  jail  for  further 
trial,  on  various  charges ;  such  as  treason,  murder,  robbery,  ar- 
son, and  larceny,  but  finally  made  their  escape  out  of  jail  and 
out  of  the  State,  before  they  could  be  brought  to  trial.  Those 
who  wish  to  consult  a  more  minute  detail  of  the  history  of  this 
people,  are  referred  to  a  volume  of  printed  evidence  and  docu- 
ments published  by  order  of  the  legislature  of  Missouri. 

The  whole  body  of  the  Missouri  Mormons  came  to  Illinois 
in  the  years  1839  and  1840  ;  and  many  of  the  leaders  who  had 
escaped,  came  through  perils  of  flood  and  field,  which,  accord- 
ing to  their  own  account,  if  written,  would  equal  a  tale  of  ro- 
mance. As  they  were  the  weaker  party,  much  sympathy  was 
felt  and  expressed  for  them  by  the  people  of  Illinois.  The 
Mormons  represented  that  they  had  been  persecuted  in  Mis- 
souri on  account  of  their  religion.  The  cry  of  persecution,  if 
believed,  is  always  sure  to  create  sympathy  for  the  sufferers. 
This  was  particularly  so  in  Illinois,  whose  citizens,  until  some 
time  after  this  period,  were  justly  distinguished  for  feelings  and 
principles  of  the  most  liberal  and  enlightened  toleration  in  mat- 
ters of  religion.  The  Mormons  were  received  as  sufferers  in 
the  cause  of  their  religion.  Several  counties  and  neighborhoods 
vied  with  each  other  in  offers  of  hospitality,  and  in  endeavors  to 
get  the  strangers  to  settle  among  them. 

At  last  the  Mormons  selected  a  place  on  the  Mississippi  river, 
afterwards  called  Nauvoo,  in  the  upper  part  of  the  county  of 
Hancock,  as  the  place  of  their  future  residence.  On  this  spot 
they  designed  to  build  up  a  great  city  and  temple,  as  the  great 
place  of  gathering  to  Zion,  and  as  the  great  central  rendezvous 
of  the  sect ;  from  whence  was  to  originate  and  spread  the  most 
gigantic  operations  for  the  conversion  of  the  world  to  the  new 

was  the  only  one  who  boldly  denounced  the  intended  assassination  of 
the  prisoners  under  color  of  law.  So  true  is  it  that  the  truly  brave 
man  is  most  apt  to  be  merciful  and  just 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

religion.  However,  in  this  history  I  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  religious,  but  only  the  political  considerations  connected 
with  this  people. 

In  the  State  of  Missouri,  the  Mormons  had  always  supported 
the  democratic  party.  They  had  been  driven  out  by  a  demo- 
cratic governor  of  a  democratic  State  ;  and  when  they  appealed 
to  Mr.  Van  Buren,  the  democratic  President  of  the  United 
States,  for  relief  against  the  Missourians,  he  refused  to  recom- 
mend it,  for  want  of  constitutional  power  in  the  United  States 
to  coerce  a  sovereign  State  in  the  execution  of  its  domestic 
polity.  This  soured  and  embittered  the  Mormons  against  the 
democrats.  Mr.  Clay,  as  a  member  of  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate, and  John  T.  Stuart,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives in  Congress,  from  Illinois,  both  whigs,  undertook  their 
cause,  and  introduced  and  countenanced  their  memorials  against 
Missouri ;  so  that,  when  the  Mormons  came  to  this  State,  they 
attached  themselves  to  the  whig  party.  In  August,  1840,  they 
voted  unanimously  for  the  whig  candidates  for  the  Senate  and 
Assembly.  In  the  November  following,  they  voted  for  the 
whig  candidate  for  President ;  and  in  August,  1841,  they  voted 
for  John  J.  Stuart,  the  whig  candidate  for  Congress  in  their 
district. 

At  the  legislature  of  1840-'41,  it  became  a  matter  of  great 
interest,  with  both  parties,  to  conciliate  these  people.  They 
were  already  numerous,  and  were  fast  increasing  by  emigration 
from  all  parts.  It  was  evident  that  they  were  to  possess  much 
power  in  elections.  They  had  already  signified  their  intention 
of  joining  neither  party,  further  than  they  could  be  supported 
by  that  party,  but  to  vote  for  such  persons  as  had  done  or  were 
willing  to  do  them  most  service.  And  the  leaders  of  both 
parties  believed  that  the  Mormons  would  soon  hold  the  balance 
of  power,  and  exerted  themselves  on  both  sides,  by  professions, 
and  kindness  and  devotion  to  their  interest,  to  win  their  sup- 
port. 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  263 

In  this  state  of  the  case  Dr.  John  C.  Bennett  presented  him- 
self at  the  seat  of  government  as  the  agent  of  the  Mormons. 
This  Bennett  was  probably  the  greatest  scamp  in  the  western 
country.  I  have  made  particular  enquiries  concerning  him,  and 
have  traced  him  in  several  places  in  which  he  had  lived  before 
he  had  joined  the  Mormons  in  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and 
he  was  everywhere  accounted  the  same  debauched,  unprincipled 
and  profligate  character.  He  was  a  man  of  some  little  talent, 
and  then  had  the  confidence  of  the  Mormons,  and  particularly 
that  of  their  leaders.  He  came  as  the  agent  of  that  people,  to 
solicit  a  city  charter ;  a  charter  for  a  military  legion ;  and  for 
various  other  purposes.  This  person  addressed  himself  to  Mr. 
Little,  the  whig  senator  from  Hancock,  and  to  Mr.  Douglass, 
the  democratic  secretary  of  State,  who  both  entered  heartily 
into  his  views  and  projects.  Bennet  managed  matters  well  for 
his  constituents.  He  flattered  both  sides  with  the  hope  of 
Mormon  favor ;  and  both  sides  expected  to  receive  their  votes. 
A  city  charter  drawn  up  to  suit  the  Mormons  was  presented  to 
the  Senate  by  Mr.  Little.  It  was  referred  to  the  judiciary  com- 
mittee, of  which  Mr.  Snyder,  a  democrat,  was  chairman,  who 
reported  it  back  recommending  its  passage.  The  vote  was 
taken,  the  ayes  and  noes  were  not  called  for,  no  one  opposed  it, 
but  all  were  busy  and  active  in  hurrying  it  through.  In  like 
manner  it  passed  the  House  of  Representatives,  where  it  was 
never  read  except  by  its  title ;  the  ayes  and  noes  were  not 
called  for,  and  the  same  universal  zeal  in  its  favor  was  mani- 
fested here  which  had  been  so  conspicuously  displayed  in  the 
Senate. 

This  city  charter  and  other  charters  passed  in  the  same  way 
by  this  legislature,  incorporated  Nauvoo,  provided  for  the  elec- 
tion of  a  Mayor,  four  Aldermen,  and  nine  Counsellors ;  gave 
them  power  to  pass  all  ordinances  necessary  for  the  peace, 
benefit,  good  order,  regulation,  convenience,  or  cleanliness  of 
the  city,  and  for  the  protection  of  property  from  fire,  which 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

were  not  repugnant  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or 
this  State,  This  seemed  to  give  them  power  to  pass  ordinances 
in  violation  of  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  to  erect  a  system  of 
government  for  themselves.  This  charter  also  established  a 
mayor's  court  with  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  all  cases  arising 
under  the  city  ordinances,  subject  to  an  appeal  to  the  municipal 
court.  It  established  a  municipal  court  to  be  composed  of  the 
mayor  as  chief  justice,  and  the  four  aldermen  as  his  associates ; 
which  court  was  to  have  jurisdiction  of  appeals  from  the  mayor 
or  aldermen,  subject  to  an  appeal  again  to  the  circuit  court  of 
the  county.  The  municipal  court  was  also  clothed  with  power 
to  issue  writs  of  habeas  corpus  in  all  cases  arising  under  the 
ordinances  of  the  city. 

This  charter  also  incorporated  the  militia  of  Nauvoo  into  a 
military  legion,  to  be  called  "  The  Nauvoo  Legion."  It  was 
made  entirely  independent  of  the  military  organization  of  the 
State,  and  not  subject  to  the  command  of  any  officer  of  the 
State  militia,  except  the  Governor  himself,  as  commander-in- 
chief.  It  was  to  be  furnished  with  its  due  proportion  of  the 
State  arms  ;  and  might  enroll  in  its  ranks  any  of  the  citizens  of 
Hancock  county  who  prefered  to  join  it,  whether  they  lived  in 
the  city  or  elsewhere.  This  last  provision,  I  believe,  was  not 
in  the  original  charter,  but  was  afterwards  passed  as  an  amend- 
ment to  a  road  law.  The  charter  also  established  a  court-mar- 
tial for  the  legion,  to  be  composed  of  the  commissioned  officers 
who  were  to  make  and  execute  all  ordinances  necessary  for  the 
benefit,  government,  and  regulation  of  the  legion  ;  but  in  so  do- 
ing, they  were  not  bound  to  regard  the  laws  of  the  State,  but 
could  do  nothing  repugnant  to  the  constitution ;  and  finally,  the 
legion  was  to  be  at  the"  disposal  of  the  mayor  in  executing  the 
laws  and  ordinances  of  the  city.  Another  charter  incorporated 
a  great  tavern  to  be  called  the  Nauvoo  House,  in  which  the 
prophet  Joe  Smith,  and  his  heirs,  were  to  have  a  suite  of  rooms 
forever. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  265 

Thus  it  was  proposed  to  re-establish  for  the  Mormons  a  gov- 
ernment within  a  government,  a  legislature  with  power  to  pass 
ordinances  at  war  with  the  laws  of  the  State ;  courts  to  execute 
them  with  but  little  dependence  upon  the  constitutional  judicia- 
ry ;  and  a  military  force  at  their  own  command,  to  be  governed 
by  its  own  by-laws  and  ordinances,  and  subject  to  no  State 
authority  but  that  of  the  Governor.  It  must  be  acknowledged 
that  these  charters  were  unheard-of,  and  anti-republican  in  many 
particulars ;  and  capable  of  infinite  abuse  by  a  people  disposed 
to  abuse  them.  The  powers  conferred  were  expressed  in  lan- 
guage at  once  ambiguous  and  undefined ;  as  if  on  purpose  to 
allow  of  misconstruction.  The  great  law  of  the  separation  of 
the  powers  of  government  was  wholly  disregarded.  The  mayor 
was  at  once  the  executive  power,  the  judiciary,  and  part  of  the 
legislature.  The  common  council,  in  passing  ordinances,  were 
restrained  only  by  the  constitution.  One  would  have  thought 
that  these  charters  stood  a  poor  chance  of  passing  the  legisla- 
ture of  a  republican  people  jealous  of  their  liberties.  Never- 
theless they  did  pass  unanimously  through  both  houses.  Messrs. 
Little  and  Douglass  .managed  with  great  dexterity  with  their 
respective  parties.  Each  party  was  afraid  to  object  to  them 
for  fear  of  losing  the  Mormon  vote,  and  each  believed  that  it 
had  secured  their  favor.  These,  I  believe,  were  the  principal 
subjects  acted  on  by  the  session  of  1840-'41. 

But  we  will  continue  a  little  farther  the  history  of  the  Mor- 
mons. A  city  government  under  the  charter  was  organized  in 
1841.  Joe  Smith  was  elected  mayor.  In  this  capacity  he  pre- 
sided in  the  common  council,  and  assisted  in  making  the  laws 
for  the  government  of  the  city.  And  as  mayor  also  he  was  to 
see  these  laws  put  into  force.  He  was  ex-officio  judge  of  the  may- 
or's court,  and  chief  justice  of  the  municipal  court,  and  in  these 
capacities  he  was  to  interpret  the  laws  which  he  had  assisted  to 
make.  The  Nauvoo  Legion  was  also  orgaaized,  with  a  great 
multitude  .of  high  officers.  It  was  divided  into  divisions,  bri- 


HISTOKY   OF  ILLINOIS. 

gades,  cohorts,  regiments,  battalions,  and  companies.  Each  di- 
vision, brigade,  and  cohort,  had  its  general,  and  over  the  whole, 
as  commander-in-chief,  Joe  Smith  was  appointed  lieutenant-gen- 
eral. These  offices,  and  particularly  the  last,  were  created  by 
an  ordinance  of  the  court-martial,  composed  of  the  commission- 
ed officers  of  the  Legion. 

The  common  council  passed  many  ordinances  for  the  punish- 
ment of  crime.  The  punishments  were  generally  different  from, 
and  vastly  more  severe  than,  the  punishments  provided  by  the 
laws  of  the  State. 

In  the  fall  of  1841,  the  governor  of  Missouri  made  a  demand 
on  Gov.  Carlin  for  the  arrest  and  delivery  of  Joe  Smith  and 
several  other  head  Mormons,  as  fugitives  from  justice.  An  ex- 
ecutive warrant  was  issued  for  that  purpose.  It  was  placed  in 
the  hands  of  an  agent  to  be  executed  ;  but  for  some  cause,  un- 
known to  me,  was  returned  to  Gov.  Carlin  without  being  exe- 
cuted. Soon  afterwards  the  governor  handed  the  same  writ  to 
his  agent,  who  this  time  succeeded  in  arresting  Joe  Smith  upon 
it.  But  before  this  time  Mr.  Douglass  had  been  elected  one  of 
the  judges  of  the  supreme  court,  and  was  assigned  to  hold  cir- 
cuit courts  in  Hancock  and  the  neighboring  counties.  This  had 
given  the  democratic  party  the  advantage  in  securing  the  Mor- 
mon vote.  Judge  Douglass  immediately  appointed  Dr.  Ben- 
nett a  master  in  chancery.  Bennett  was  then  an  influential 
Mormon,  and  had,  before  he  joined  the  Mormons,  been  appoint- 
ed by  Gov.  Carlin  adjutant-general  of  the  State  militia.  He 
had  also  been  elected  an  alderman  of  the  city,  and  a  major-gen- 
eral in  the  Legion.  Upon  his  arrest,  Joe  Smith  was  carried  be- 
fore Judge  Douglass,  upon  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  was 
discharged  upon  the  ground  that  the  writ  upon  which  he  had 
been  arrested  had  been  once  returned,  before  it  had  been  exe- 
cuted, and  wasfunctus  offido.  Whether  the  decision  was  right 
or  wrong,  Joe  Smith  was  not  lawyer  enough  to  know,  and  was 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  267 

therefore  the  more  inclined  to  esteem  his  discharge  as  a  great 
favor  from  the  democratic  party. 

The  Mormons  anticipated  a  further  demand  from  Missouri, 
and  a  further  writ  from  the  governor  of  this  State,  for  the  arrest 
of  their  prophet  and  leaders.  They  professed  to  believe  that 
the  public  mind  in  Missouri  was  so  prejudiced  against  them,  that 
a  fair  trial  there  was  out  of  the  question,  and  that  if  their  lead- 
ers were  taken  to  Missouri  for  trial,  and  not  convicted  upon 
evidence,  they  would  be  murdered  by  a  mob  before  they  could 
get  out  of  the  State.  Some  mode  of  permanent  protection, 
therefore,  against  the  demands  of  Missouri,  became  a  matter  of 
vital  importance ;  and  they  set  their  ingenuity  to  work  to  de- 
vise a  scheme  of  protection,  by  means  of  their  own  city  ordi- 
nances, to  be  executed  by  their  own  municipal  court.  Gov. 
Carlin  had  issued  his  writ  again  in  1842.  Joe  Smith  was  arrest- 
ed again,  and  was  either  rescued  by  his  followers  or  discharged 
by  the  municipal  court  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  The  com- 
mon council  passed  an  ordinance,  declaring,  in  effect,  that  the 
municipal  court  should  have  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  of  arrests 
made  in  the  city  by  any  process  whatever.  The  charter  intend- 
ed to  give  the  jurisdiction  only  in  cases  where  imprisonment 
was  a  consequence  of  the  breach  of  some  ordinance.  But  it 
was  interpreted  by  the  Mormons  to  authorize  the  enlargement 
and  extension  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court,  by  ordinance. 
This  ordinance  will  figure  very  largely  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
Mormons  hereafter. 

In  December,  1841,  a  State  democratic  convention  assembled 
at  Springfield,  and  nominated  Adam  W.  Snyder  as  the  demo- 
cratic candidate  for  governor,  to  be  elected  in  August,  1842. 
Mr.  Snyder  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  distant  rela- 
tive of  Gov.  Snyder  of  that  State.  In  his  early  youth,  he  learn- 
ed the  trade  of  a  fuller  and  wool-carder.  He  came  to  Illinois 
when  he  was  about  eighteen  years  old ;  settled  in  the  French 
village  of  Cahokia ;  followed  his  trade  for  several  years  ;  stud- 


268  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

ied  law ;  removed  to  the  county  seat,  where  he  commenced  his 
profession,  in  which  he  was  successful  in  getting  practice.  In 
1830  he  was  elected  to  the  State  Senate,  and  was  afterwards 
elected  to  Congress,  from  his  district ;  and  was  again  elected  to 
the  State  Senate  in  1840.  Mr.  Snyder  was  a  very  showy,  plausi- 
ble and  agreeable  man  in  conversation,  and  was  gifted  with  a 
popular  eloquence,  which  was  considerably  effective.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  senate  when  the  Mormon  charters  were  passed, 
and  had  taken  an  active  part  in  furthering  their  passage.  In  the 
spring  of  1842,  Joseph  Duncan,  former  governor,  became  the 
candidate  of  the  whig  party  for  the  same  office. 

In  a  very  short  time  after  the  two  parties  had  their  candidates 
fairly  in  the  field,  Joe  Smith  published  a  proclamation  to  his  fol- 
lowers in  the  Nauvoo  papers,  declaring  Judge  Douglass  to  be 
a  master  spirit,  and  exhorting  them  to  vote  for  Mr.  Snyder  for 
governor.  The  whigs  had  considerable  hope  of  the  Mormon 
support  until  the  appearance  of  this  proclamation.  The  Mor- 
mons had  voted  for  the  whig  candidate  for  Congress  in  August, 
1841.  But  this  proclamation  left  no  doubt  as  to  what  they 
would  do  in  the  coming  contest.  It  was  plain  that  the  whigs 
could  expect  their  support  no  longer,  and  that  the  whig  party 
in  the  legislature  had  swallowed  the  odious  charters  without 
prospect  of  reward. 

The  Mormons,  however,  were  becoming  unpopular,  nay 
odious,  to  the  great  body  of  the  people.  As  I  have  already 
said,  their  common  council  had  passed  some  extraordinary  or- 
dinances calculated  to  set  the  State  government  at  defiance. 
The  Legion  had  been  furnished  with  three  pieces  of  cannon  and 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  stand  of  small  arms  ;  which  popu- 
lar rumor  increased  to  the  number  of  thirty  pieces  of  cannon 
and  five  or  six  thousand  stand  of  muskets.  The  Mormons 
were  rapidly  increasing  by  emigration.  The  great  office  of 
Lieutenant  General  had  been  created  for  the  commander  of 
the  Legion,  of  higher  rank,  as  was  said,  than  any  office  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  269 

militia,  and  higher  than  any  office  in  the  regular  army.  A 
vast  number  of  reports  were  circulated  all  over  the  country,  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  Mormons.  They  were  charged  with  nu- 
merous thefts  and  robberies,  and  rogueries  of  all  sorts ;  and  it 
was  believed  by  vast  numbers  of  the  people,  that  they  enter- 
tained the  treasonable  design,  when  they  got  strong  enough,  of 
overturning  the  government,  driving  out  the  old  population, 
and  taking  possession  of  the  country,  as  the  children  of  Israel 
did  in  the  land  of  Canaan. 

The  whigs,  seeing  that  they  had  been  out-generaled  by  the 
democrats  in  securing  the  Mormon  vote,  became  seriously 
alarmed,  and  sought  to  repair  their  disaster  by  raising  a  kind  of 
crusade  against  that  people.  The  whig  newspapers  teemed  with 
accounts  of  the  wonders  and  enormities  of  Nauvoo,  and  of  the 
awful  wickedness  of  a  party  which  would  consent  to  receive  the 
support  of  such  miscreants.  Governor  Duncan,  who  was  really 
a  brave,  honest  man,  and  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  getting 
the  Mormon  charters  passed  through  the  legislature,  took  the 
stump  on  this  subject  in  good  earnest,  and  expected  to  be 
elected  governor  almost  on  this  question  alone.  There  is  no 
knowing  how  far  he  might  have  succeeded,  if  Mr.  Snyder  had 
lived  to  be  his  competitor. 

However,  Mr.  Snyder  departed  this  life,  much  lamented  by 
numerous  friends,  in  the  month  of  May  preceding  the  election. 
The  democratic  party  had  now  to  select  another  candidate  for 
governor.  The  choice  fell  upon  me.  I  hope  to  be  excused 
from  saying  anything  in  these  memoirs  in  relation  to  my  own 
personal  qualities  and  history.  If  it  should  ever  be  thought 
important  that  a  knowledge  of  such  humble  matters  should 
be  perpetuated,  I  will  trust  the  task  of  doing  it  to  other 
hands.  I  will  merely  mention,  that  at  the  time  I  was  nomi- 
nated as  a  candidate  for  governor,  I  was  one  of  the  judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court  engaged  in  holding  a  circuit  court  on  Fox 
river,  in  the  north.  So  soon  as  I  heard  of  my  nomination,  I 


270  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

.^•4 

hastened  to  the  seat  of  government,  resigned  the  office  of  judge, 
and  became  the  candidate  of  my  party.  Here  permit  me  to 
remark,  I  had  never  before  been  much  concerned  in  the  politi- 
cal conflicts  of  the  day,  and  never  at  all  on  my  own  account. 
It  is  true  that  I  had  been  much  in  office.  I  had  been  twice  ap- 
pointed to  the  office  of  State's  Attorney,  and  four  times  elected, 
without  opposition,  to  the  office  of  judge  by  the  legislature. 
I  had  never  been  a  candidate  for  the  legislature,  for  Congress, 
or  for  any  office  elective  by  the  people,  and  had  never  wanted 
to  be  a  candidate  for  such  offices.  I  had  never  been  an  appli- 
cant for  any  office  from  the  General  Government,  and  had 
always  avoided  being  a  candidate  for  any  office  which  was  de- 
sired by  any  respectable  political  friend. 

And  here  again  I  must  be  permitted  to  indulge  in  some  fur 
ther  reflections  upon  the  practical  operation  of  republican  gov 
ernment.  The  history  of  my  administration  but  serves  to  illus- 
trate what  has  already  been  demonstrated  by  two  administra- 
tions of  the  federal  government.  I  mean  the  administrations 
of  Tyler  and  Polk.  Neither  of  these  gentlemen  were  placed  in 
the  office  of  president  because  they  were  leaders  of  their  respec- 
tive parties.  Tyler  was  accidentally  made  vice-president  by 
the  whigs,  and  accidentally  became  president,  by  the  death  of 
Gen.  Harrison.  He  had  the  position  as  to  office  to  govern,  but 
the  moral  power  of  government  was  in  the  hands  of  Henry 
Clay,  the  great  leader  of  the  whig  party,  and  the  embodiment 
of  its  principles.  During  all  of  Tyler's  administration  he  ex- 
erted no  moral  force ;  government  was  kept  in  motion  merely 
by  its  previous  impulse,  and  by  the  patriotism  of  Congress, 
voluntarily  subduing  so  much  of  its  factious  spirit  as  was  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  keep  government  alive.  Polk  was  acci- 
dentally nominated  by  the  Baltimore  convention,  after  it  was 
ascertained  that  none  of  the  great  leaders  of  the  democratic 
party  could  be  nominated ;  and  so  far  during  his  time  the  gov- 
ernment has  been  carried  on  by  the  mere  force  of  the  demo- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 


~«.. 

271 


cratic  party,  which  has  been  in  the  majority  in  Congress,  the 
great  leaders,  for  fear  of  division  in  their  ranks,  uniting  some- 
times in  his  support,  and  sometimes  dictating  to  him  the  policy 
of  his  administration.  Neither  Tyler  nor  Polk  had  much  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  their  respective  parties.  They  had 
neither  of  them  fought  their  way  hi  the  party  contests  to  the 
leadership,  and  to  the  moral  power  which  the  leadership  alone 
can  give.  So  it  was  with  the  humble  person  who  was  now  to 
be  elected  governor  of  Illinois.  Mr.  Snyder  had  been  nomi- 
nated because  he  was  a  leader  of  the  party.  Mr.  Snyder  died, 
and  I  was  nominated,  not  because  I  was  a  leader,  for  I  was  not, 
but  because  I  was  believed  to  have  no  more  than  a  very  ordi- 
nary share  of  ambition ;  because  it  was  doubtful  whether  any 
of  the  leaders  could  be  elected,  and  because  it  was  thought  I 
would  stand  more  in  need  of  support  from  leaders,  than  an  ac- 
tual leader  would.  To  this  cause,  and  perhaps  there  were 
others,  I  trace  the  fact  which  will  hereafter  appear,  that  I  was 
never  able  to  command  the  support  of  the  entire  party  which 
elected  me. 

From  such  examples  as  these,  I  venture  to  assert,  that  the 
moral  power  belonging  to  the  leadership  of  the  dominant  party, 
is  greater  than  the  legal  power  of  office  conferred  by  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  laws.  In  fact  it  has  appeared  to  me  at  times, 
that  there  is  very  little  power  of  government  in  this  country, 
except  that  which  pertains  to  the  leadership  of  the  party  in  the 
majority.  Gen.  Jackson  not  only  governed  whilst  he  was  pres- 
ident, but  for  eight  years  afterwards,  and  has  since  continued 
to  govern,  even  after  his  death.* 

*  In  forming  a  constitution  it  is  almost  impossible  to  anticipate  how 
much  power  is  delegated  to  the  government,  and  particularly  to  the 
executive  branch.  The  power  of  the  executive  branch  depends  some- 
what upon  the  legal  authority  with  which  the  officer  is  clothed,  but 
more  upon  his  personal  character  and  influence.  To  illustrate  this, 
take  the  administrations  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  Gen.  Jackson,  and 


272  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

When  men  who  are  not  leaders  are  put  into  high  office,  it  is 
generally  done  through  the  influence  of  leaders,  who  expect  to 
govern  through  them.  They  are  expected  to  need  support  more 
than  if  they  were  actual  leaders ;  and  are  preferred  sometimes 
to  actual  leaders,  on  account  of  being  more  available  as  candi- 
dates, and  sometimes  because  those  leaders  who  cannot  get  the 
office  themselves,  hope  through  them  to  help  to  be  president  or 
governor,  as  the  case  may  be.  Soon  after  my  election,  I  ascer- 
tained that  quite  a  number  of  such  leaders  imagined  that  they, 
instead  of  myself,  had  been  elected ;  and  could  only  be  con- 
vinced to  the  contrary,  on  being  referred  to  the  returns  of  the 
election. 

A  pusillanimous  man,  willing  to  take  office  upon  any  terms, 
is  ever  disposed  to  submit  to  this  kind  of  influence  and  dicta- 
tion. He  calls  it  consulting  his  party  when  he  consults  only  a 
few  leaders,  and  this  he  is  obliged  to  do,  or  find  himself  without 
the  power  to  govern.  In  a  government  where  the  democratic 
spirit  is  all-powerful,  this  power  to  govern  consists  in  being 
able  to  unite  a  majority  of  opinions ;  but  where  the  people  are 
free,  each  man  to  choose  for  himself,  it  is  extremely  difficult  to 

John  Tyler.  These  presidents  were  all  clothed  with  the  same  identical 
legal  powers.  John  Quincy  Adams,  although  a  man  of  great  abilities, 
acknowledged  the  feebleness  of  his  administration,  in  consequence  of 
not  being  elected  by  the  people,  but  by  the  House  of  Representatives. 
Gen.  Jackson  exercised  the  power  of  an  autocrat,  because  he  was  sup- 
ported by  the  confidence  and  affections  of  the  American  people.  And 
John  Tyler,  though  a  man  of  very  respectable  talents,  converted  the 
executive  department  into  a  kind  of  anarchy,  because  he  had  no  party 
in  his  favor.  The  election,  therefore,  of  a  strong  man  or  a  weak  one, 
to  this  office,  is  equivalent  to  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  by 
which  great  powers  are  given  or  withheld,  as  the  case  may  be.  Or, 
rather,  it  is  more  like  a  revolution,  by  which  a  dictator  is  appointed  at 
one  time,  and  at  another  the  authority  of  the  executive  office  is  so  re- 
stricted as  to  convert  the  government  into  an  anarchy.  And  yet  dur- 
ing the  whole  time  there  has  been  really  no  change  in  the  fundamental 
law. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  273 

induce  a  majority  to  co-operate  for  the  common  benefit.  Va- 
rious reasons,  and  passions,  and  prejudices,  will  lead  different 
ways ;  and  very  oft6n  all  reason  will  be  confounded  by  a  com- 
bination of  clamor  and  prejudice.  It  is  generally  the  work  of  a 
few  leading  minds  to  bring  order  out  of  this  chaos,  and  to  get  a 
majority  to  think  and  feel  alike.  These  leaders,  therefore,  as 
effectually  govern  the  country  as  if  they  were  born  to  rule. 

The  best  and  purest  mode  in  which  leaders  exercise  their 
power,  is  by  instruction  and  persuasion.  This  kind  of  govern- 
ment can  exist  only  over  a  very  intelligent  and  virtuous  people. 
And  as  a  government  is  always  a  type  of  .the  people  over 
whom  it  is  exercised,  so  it  will  be  found  that  when  the  people 
are  less  enlightened  and  virtuous,  the  means  of  governing  them 
will  be  less  intellectual.  If  the  people  are  indifferent  to, 
and  ignorant  of  what  constitutes  good  government,  the  mode 
which  leaders  take  to  unite  a  majority  of  them  is  apt  to  be  as 
follows :  There  is  in  every  county,  generally  at  the  county 
seats,  a  little  clique  of  county  leaders,  who  aim  to  monopolize  or 
dispose  of  the  county  offices.  Some  of  them  expect  to  be  elect- 
ed to  the  legislature,  and  in  time,  to  higher  offices.  Others 
expect  to  be  recipients  of  some  county  or  State  office ;  or  to  be 
appointed  to  some  office  by  the  President  through  the  influence 
of  members  of  Congress.  These  lesser  leaders  all  look  to  some 
more  considerable  leader,  who  is  a  judge,  member  of  Congress, 
United  States  Senator,  or  Governor  of  the  State.  The  State 
leaders  again  look  to  some  more  considerable  man  at  Washing- 
ton city,  who  is  actually  president,  or  who  controls  the  presi- 
dent, or  who  is  himself  a  prominent  candidate  for  that  office. 
The  great  leader  at  Washington  dashes  boldly  out  in  favor  of, 
or  against  some  measure ;  the  class  of  leaders  whose  influence 
as  yet,  is  bounded  by  a  single  State,  fall  into  line  behind  the 
great  leader.  These  State  leaders  are  kept  together  by  a  fear 
of  the  opposite  party.  For  instance,  if  they  are  democratic 
leaders,  they  fear  that  a  division  amongst  themselves  will  divide 

12* 


274  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  democratic  party,  and  thereby  cause  its  defeat  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  whigs.  They  therefore  make  sacrifices  of  opinion  to 
keep  up  unity,  the  least  influential  leader  having  to  make  the 
greatest  sacrifice.* 

The  State  leaders,  whether  democrat  or  whig  makes  no  dif- 
ference, then  give  the  word  to  the  little  cliques  of  leaders  in 
each  county ;  these  county  leaders  convey  it  to  the  little  big  men 
in  each  neighborhood,  and  they  do  the  talking  to  the  rank-and- 
file  of  the  people.  In  this  way  principles  and  men  are  put  up 
and  put  down  with  amazing  celerity.  And  gentle  reader  do 
not  be  astonished ;  THIS  is  GOVERNMENT  !  and  if  there  is  in  point 

*  The  organization  of  men  into  political  parties  under  the  control  of 
leaders  as  a  means  of  government,  necessarily  destroys  individuality 
of  character  and  freedom  of  opinion.  Government  implies  restraint, 
compulsion  of  either  the  body  or  mind,  or  both.  The  latest  improve- 
ment to  effect  this  restraint  and  compulsion  is  to  use  moral  means,  in- 
tellectual means  operating  on  the  mind  instead  of  the  old  mode  of  using 
force,  such  as  standing  armies,  fire,  sword  and  the  gibbet,  to  control 
the  mere  bodies  of  men.  It  is  therefore  a  very  common  thing  for  men 
of  all  parties  to  make  very  great  sacrifices  of  opinion,  so  as  to  bring 
themselves  into  conformity  with  the  bulk  of  their  party.  And  yet 
there  is  nothing  more  common  than  for  the  race  of  newspaper  states- 
men to  denounce  all  such  of  the  opposite  party  as  yield  their  own  opin- 
ions to  the  opinions  of  the  majority,  as  truckling  and  servile.  They 
may  possibly  be  right  in  this.  But  undoubtedly  such  submission  is 
often  necessary  to  the  existence  of  majorities,  entertaining  the  same 
opinion.  A  little  further  experience  may  develop  the  fact,  that  when 
this  means  of  securing  majorities  shall  fail,  the  government  will  fall 
into  anarchy. 

Either  moral  or  physical  force  must  be  used  for  purposes  of  govern- 
ment. When  a  people  are  so  gross  that  moral  power  cannot  operate 
on  them,  physical  force  must  be  resorted  to.  Also,  when  the  officers 
of  government  lack  talents  and  moral  power,  physical  force  may  there- 
by be  made  necessary ;  so  that  it  may  be  said,  that  a  people  may  stand 
in  need  of  being  governed  by  absolute  violence,  just  in  proportion  to 
their  want  of  a  proper  civilization  ;  and  sometimes  also  just  in  propor- 
tion to  the  want  of  moral  power  in  the  government 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  275 

of  fact  any  other  sort,  its  existence  cannot  be  proved  by  me, 
and  yet  I  have  been  governor  of  the  State  for  four  years. 

It  may  be  thought  that  these  leaders,  of  course,  are  men  of 
great  and  magnanimous  natures.  But  such  is  not  always  the 
fact.  To  make  a  leader,  nothing  more  is  necessary  than  a  pleas- 
ing address,  added  to  zeal  for  a  party,  and  unceasing  activity 
and  enterprise.  The  world  is  governed  by  industry  more  than 
by  talents.  True  great  men  are  leaders  only  hi  times  of  great 
trouble,  when  a  nation  is  in  peril.  In  quiet  times,  the  active, 
talking,  enterprising  and  cunning  manager  is  apt  to  be  the  lead- 
er. This  kind  of  leader  always  claims  more  than  his  just  share 
in  the  benefits  and  advantages  of  government.  When  he  has 
elected  some  man  to  high  office,  who  is  not  a  leader,  he  claims 
every  service  from  him  which  he  has  it  in  his  power  to  render. 
Many  such  must  have  offices  which  they  are  not  fit  for ;  others 
have  a  scheme  to  make  money  out  of  the  public ;  others  invoke 
aid  in  procuring  the  enactment  of  laws  for  private  advantage ; 
and  others  again  require  a  hundred  things  which  an  honest  man 
ought  not  to  do.  And  if  their  unreasonable  requests  are  re- 
fused ;  if  the  true  interests  of  the  people  are  consulted,  and  the 
man  elected  refuses  to  be  a  mere  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
leaders,  to  make  an  unequal  distribution  of  the  advantages  of 
government,  they.., immediately  denounce  him,  they  send  out  all 
sorts  of  falsehoods  against  him,  and,  for  being  honest  and  de- 
voted to  the  public  interest,  they  get  many  people  to  believe 
that  he  is  a  greater  rogue  than  he  would  really  have  been  if  he 
had  done  all  the  villanous  things  they  required  him  to  do.  I 
could  relate  some  amusing  instances  of  this  sort  in  the  course 
of  my  administration.* 

*  The  condition  of  a  modern  governor  in  party  times,  is  well  describ- 
ed in  Knickerbocker's  history  of  New  York  :  "  He  is  an  unhappy  vic- 
tim of  popularity,  who  is  in  fact  the  most  dependent,  hen-pecked  being 
in  community  ;  doomed  to  bear  the  secret  goadings  and  corrections  of 
his  own  party,  and  the  sneers  and  revilings  of  the  whole  world  be- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  object  to  overthrow  the  power  of  leaders, 
if  I  could  ;  for  I  am  persuaded,  that  without  it,  a  governing  ma- 
jority of  the  people  would  rarely  be  found.  A  government  of 
leaders,  however  defective  it  may  be,  is  better  than  no  govern- 
ment, upon  the  same  principle  that  despotism  is  better  than  an- 
archy. But  reformation  of  this  power  is  earnestly  desired.  For 
as  long  as  the  great  body  of  the  people  do  not  investigate,  and 
take  so  little  interest  in  matters  of  government,  as  long  as  men 
of  influence  will  endeavor  to  appropriate  the  benefits  and  advan- 
tages of  government  to  themselves,  and  can  and  do  control  the 
people,  making  it  necessary  for  men  in  office  to  lean  upon  lead- 
ers instead  of  the  intelligence  of  the  people  for  support,  there 
will  never  be  any  good  government,  or  if  there  is,  the  people 
will  not  think  so.*  Fortunate  -is  that  country  which  has  great 

side.  Set  up  like  geese  at  Christmas  holidays,  to  be  pelted  and  shot  at  by 
every  whipster  and  vagabond  in  the  land."  From  this  condition  nothing 
can  save  a  governor  but  his  personal  insignificance,  the  idea  that  he  is 
not  worth  making  war  on.  As  soon  as  a  governor  is  elected,  he  receives 
the  congratulations  of  his  friends,  and  there  are  generally  about  ten  of 
these,  and  sometimes  more,  in  each  county,  each  one  of  whom  claiming 
to  have  elected  him.  Each  one  writes  to  the  governor,  or  goes  to  see 
him,  to  tell  him  how  well  and  cunningly  he  fought  and  managed,  and 
how  many  sacrifices  he  made  to  carry  the  election.  Each  one  is  sure 
that  he  did  it  all  himself,  and  claims  to  be  rewarded  accordingly.  If 
the  governor  cannot  do  everything  for  every  one  as  required,  the  disap- 
pointed ones  are  more  earnest  in  their  enmity  than  they  were  before  in 
their  friendship.  Something  of  this  kind  has  happened  to  me.  I  do  not 
complain  of  it,  but  merely  mention  it  but  to  show  how  difficult  it  is  for 
a  governor  to  have  any  policy  of  his  own  for  the  general  advantage  of 
the  people,  and  pursue  it  steadily  without  incurring  the  censure  of  such 
politicians  as  have  no  public  benefits  in  view,  but  merely  their  own 
selfish  projects. 

*  Just  now  the  public  mind  is  in  a  great  ferment  concerning  amend- 
ments of  the  constitution,  as  if  amendments  of  the  laws  were  a  cure  for 
every  ill  that  flesh  is  heir  to.  Without  undertaking  to  prove,  I  will 
venture  to  assert^  that  there  may  be  a  very  bad  government  with  very 


HISTORY   OF  ILLINOIS.  277 

and  good  men  for  leaders  of  parties,  upon  whose  measures  a 
majority  of  the  people  can  safely  unite,  and  the  greater  the  ma- 
jority the  better.  If  the  power  of  leaders  is  ever  to  be  reform- 
ed, it  will  be  by  beginning  with  the  people  themselves.  The 
people,  whether  good  or  bad,  will  have  a  government  which,  in 
the  main,  truly  represents  the  state  of  civilization  whjch  they 
have  attained  to.  The  democratic  party  professes  to  be  the 
party  of  progress  in  matters  of  government ;  it  has  much  to 
reform ;  but  it  is  sincerely  hoped  that  at  no  distant  day  its  at- 
tention may  be  directed  to  the  evils  of  this  machinery,  and  cor- 
rect them.  At  present,  the  people  may  be  said  to  govern  them- 
selves only  by  being  the  depository  of  power,  which  they  can 
exercise  if  they  choose  ;  but  which,  for  most  of  the  time,  they 
choose  to  give  into  the  hands  of  their  leaders,  to  be  exercised 
without  much  responsibility  to  them.  The  responsibility  is  all 
to  attach  to  their  leaders,  and  not  to  the  people. 

As  soon  as  I  was  announced  as  a  candidate  for  governor,  the 
Mormon  question  was  revived  against  me,  as  being  the  heir  of 
the  lamented  Snyder.  But  it  could  not  be  made  to  work  much 
against  me.  I  had  been  as  little  concerned  in  the  passage  of  the 
Mormon  charters  as  my  opponent.  Of  course,  in  a  State  so 

good  laws.  The  laws  may  be  amended,  but  if  human  nature  is  vicious 
and  selfish,  it  will  find  a  way  to  pervert  the  best  of  laws  to  the  worst . 
of  purposes.  I  assert  again,  that  if  government  is  to  be  reformed,  the 
work  must  begin  with  the  people,  who  are,  in  a  kind  of  way,  the  source 
of  power.  If  it  is  once  given  up  that  the  people  can  never  be  persuad- 
ed to  vote  wisely  and  judiciously,  to  sustain  such  of  their  servants  as 
may  be  faithful,  and  put  aside  all  selfish  demagogues,  who  seek  to  live 
merely  by  the  profits  of  office,  then  we  may  make  up  our  minds  to  see 
government  very  imperfect  in  its  practical  operation,  under  any  form 
of  constitution  whatever.  The  Utopians  and  Perfectionists  then  will 
have  nothing  to  do  but  to  lay  aside  their  fine,  sun-shiny  theories,  and 
live  in  the  world  the  little  time  that  is  allotted  to  them,  contented 
with  the  imperfections  of  government,  as  they  are  obliged  to  be  with 
the  imperfections  of  everything  else. 


278  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

decidedly  democratic,  I  was  elected  by  a  large  majority.  The 
banks,  the  State  debt,  the  canal,  and  the  Mormons,  together 
•with  the  general  politics  of  the  Union,  were  the  principal  topics 
of  discussion  during  the  canvass.  Topics  of  local  interest,  how- 
ever, had  but  little  interest  on  the  result  of  the  election.  The 
people  (^Illinois  were  so  thoroughly  partisan,  upon  the  great 
question  of  the  nation,  that  matters  merely  of  local  concern, 
though  of  vital  importance  to  the  people,  were  disregarded. 

To  sum  up,  then,  this  was  the  condition  of  the  State  when  I 
came  into  office  as  governor.  The  domestic  treasury  of  the 
State  was  indebted  for  the  ordinary  expenses  of  government  to 
the  amount  of  about  $313,000.  Auditor's  warrants  on  the 
treasury  were  selling  at  fifty  per  cent,  discount,  and  there  was 
no  money  in  the  treasury  whatever ;  not  even  to  pay  postage 
on  letters.  The  annual  revenues  applicable  to  the  payment  of 
ordinary  expenses,  amounted  to  about  $130,000.  The  treasury 
was  bankrupt ;  the  revenues  were  insufficient ;  the  people  were 
unable  and  unwilling  to  pay  high  taxes ;  and  the  State  had  bor- 
rowed itself  out  of  all  credit.  A  debt  of  near  fourteen  millions 
of  dollars  had  been  contracted  for  the  canal,  railroads,  and  other 
purposes.  The  currency  of  the  State  had  been  annihilated; 
there  was  not  over  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  in 
good  money  in  the  pockets  of  the  whole  people,  which  occa- 
"sioned  a  general  inability  to  pay  taxes.  The  whole  people  were 
indebted  to  the  merchants ;  nearly  all  of  whom  were  indebted 
to  the  banks,  or  to  foreign  merchants;  and  the  banks  owed 
everybody  ;  and  none  were  able  to  pay. 

To  many  persons  it  seemed  impossible  to  devise  any  system 
of  policy,  out  of  this  jumble  and  chaos  of  confusion,  which  would 
relieve  the  State.  Every  one  had  his  plan,  and  the  confusion 
of  counsels  among  prominent  men  was  equalled  only  by  the 
confusion  of  public  affairs. 


--:-,•-  CH.APTER    IX.  ?•&•'•• 

Character  of  the  people — North  and  South — Causes  of  discord— Principle  upon  which 
elections  were  made — Character  of  candidates — Reasons  for  preference — Further 
maxims  of  politicians — John  Grammar — Want  of  unity  in  the  democratic  party — 
Want  of  great  leaders— Members  of  the  legislature— Legislative  elections — Neglect 
of  other  business— Love  of  popularity— Account  of  lobby  members— Their  motives 
and  influence — Professional  politicians — Ultraistsand  "  Milk  and  water  men,"  tend- 
ing to  repudiation — Plans  for  public  relief — Illinois  canal— Justus  Butterfleld — Mi- 
chael Ryan— Arthur  Bronson— Compromise  with  the  banks— Proposed  repeal  of 
their  charters — Governor  Carlin's  message — Arguments  for  compromise  and  for  re- 
peal— Ayes  and  Noes  in  the  House — John  A.  McClernand — Lyman  Trumbull — 
James  Shields — Feuds  among  politicians  growing  out  of  the  appointment  of  Secre- 
tary of  State— Amalgamation  of  the  co-ordinate  branches  of  government — Opposi- 
tion to  the  compromise  bill  in  the  Senate— Character  of  the  leader  of  this  opposition 
—Removal  of  Trumbull  from  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State— Humbug  set  off 
against  humbug— Improvement  of  public  affairs— Execution  laws,  debtor  and 
creditor. 

OBSTRUCTIONS  to  the  success  of  wise  policy,  which  would  re- 
lieve the  State  from  these  multiplied  evils,  were  to  be  found  in 
the  character,  varieties,  and  genius  of  the  masses  of  the  people  ; 
and  in  the  motives,  aims,  and  enterprises  of  politicians ;  some 
account  of  which  is  necessary  to  a  right  understanding  of  the 
future  action  of  government.  The  State  is  about  four  hundred 
miles  long  from  north  to  south,  and  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  wide  from  east  to  west.  This  shape  of  the  State  natu- 
rally divided  the  legislature  into  representatives  from  the  south 
and  representatives  from  the  north,  and  under  any  circum- 
stances, a  State  so  long  in  proportion  to  its  breadth,  must  con- 
tain much  of  the  elements  of  discord.  The  southern  portion  of 
the  State  was  settled  principally  by  people  from  the  slavehold- 
ing  States;  the  north,  principally  from  New  York  and  New 
England.  The  southern  people  were  generally  poor;  they 


280  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

were  such  as  were  not  able  to  own  slaves  in  a  slave  State,  and 
who  came  here  to  avoid  slavery.  A  poor  white  man  in  a  slave 
State,  is  of  little  more  importance,  in  the  eyes  of  the  wealthy, 
than  the  negroes.  The  very  negroes  of  the  rich  call  such  poor 
persons  "  poor  white  folks."  The  wealthy  immigrant  from  the 
slave  States  rarely  came  here.  He  moved  to  some  new  slave 
State,  to  which  he  could  take  his  negroes.  The  consequence 
was,  that  our  southern  settlements  presented  but  few  specimens 
of  the  more  wealthy,  enterprising,  intellectual,  and  cultivated 
people  from  the  slave  States.  Those  who  did  come  were  a 
very  good,  honest,  kind,  hospitable  people,  unambitious  of 
wealth,  and  great  lovers  of  ease  and  social  enjoyment. 

The  settlers  from  the  North,  not  being  debarred  by  our  Con- 
stitution from  bringing  their  property  with  them,  were  of  a  dif- 
ferent class.  The  northern  part  of  the  State  was  settled  in  the 
first  instance  by  wealthy  farmers,  enterprising  merchants,  mil- 
lers, and  manufacturers.  They  made  farms,  built  mills,  church- 
es, school-houses,  towns,  and  cities ;  and  made  roads  and  bridges 
as  if  by  magic ;  so  that  although  the  settlements  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  State  are  twenty,  thirty,  forty,  and  fifty  years  in  ad- 
vance, on  the  score  of  age,  yet  are  they  ten  years  behind  in 
point  of  wealth,  and  all  the  appliances  of  a  higher  civilization. 

This  of  itself  was  cause  enough  for  discord  between  the  two 
ends  of  the  State.  The  people  of  the  south  entertained  a  most 
despicable  opinion  of  their  northern  neighbors.  They  had  never 
seen  the  genuine  Yankee.  They  had  seen  a  skinning,  traffick- 
ing, and  tricky  race  of  pedlers  from  New  England,  who  much 
infested  the  West  and  South  with  tin  ware,  small  assortments 
of  merchandise,  and  wooden  clocks ;  and  they  supposed  that 
the  whole  of  the  New  England  people  were  like  these  speci- 
mens. They  formed  the  opinion  that  a  genuine  Yankee  was  a 
close,  miserly,  dishonest,  selfish  getter  of  money,  void  of  gen- 
erosity, hospitality,  or  any  of  the  kindlier  feelings  of  human 
nature.  The  northern  people  formed  equally  as  unfavorable 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  281 

an  opinion  of  their  southern  neighbors.  The  northern  man 
believed  the  southerner  to  be  a  long,  lank,  lean,  lazy,  and  igno- 
rant animal,  but  little  in  advance  of  the  savage  state ;  one  who 
was  content  to  squat  in  a  log-cabin,  with  a  large  family  of  ill- 
fed  and  ill-clothed,  idle,  ignorant  children.  The  truth  was,  both 
parties  were  wrong.  There  is  much  natural  shrewdness  and 
sagacity  in  the  most  ignorant  of  the  southern  people ;  and  they 
are  generally  accumulating  property  as  fast  as  any  people  can 
who  had  so  little  to  begin  with.  The  parties  are  about  equal 
in  point  of  generosity  and  liberality,  though  these  virtues  show 
themselves  in  each  people  in  a  different  way.  The  southerner 
is  perhaps  the  most  hospitable  and  generous  to  individuals. 
He  is  lavish  of  his  victuals,  his  liquors,  and  other  personal  fa- 
vors. But  the  northern  man  is  the  most  liberal  in  contributing 
to  whatever  is  for  the  public  benefit.  Is  a  school-house,  a 
bridge,  or  a  church  to  be  built,  a  road  to  be  made,  a  school  or 
a  minister  to  be  maintained,  or  taxes  to  be  paid  for  the  honor 
or  support  of  government,  the  northern  man  is  never  found 
wanting. 

This  misconception  of  character  was  the  cause  of  a  good  deal 
of  misunderstanding.  The  great  canal  itself,  from  Lake  Mich- 
igan to  the  Illinois  river,  was  opposed  by  some  at  an  early  day, 
for  fear  it  would  open  a  way  for  flooding  the  State  with  Yan- 
kees. Even  as  popular  a  man  as  the  late  Lieutenant-Governor 
Kinney,  opposed  it  in  a  speech  in  the  Senate  on  this  ground. 
He  said  the  Yankees  spread  everywhere.  He  was  looking 
daily  for  them  to  overrun  this  State.  They  could  be  found  in 
every  country  on  the  globe ;  and  one  strong  proof  to  him  that 
John  Cleves  Symmes  was  wrong  in  his  theory  of  the  earth, 
was,  that  if  such  an  opening  at  the  north  pole  as  that  theory 
supposed  really  existed,  the  Yankees  would  have  had  a  big 
wagon  road  to  it  long  before  its  discovery  by  Mr.  Symmes. 
This  want  of  concord  in  the  two  races  of  people  was  unfavor- 
able to  the  adoption  of  the  wisest  means  for  public  relief.  In 


HISTOEY   OF  ILLINOIS. 

framing  a  wise  policy  for  the  future,  the  success  of  the  canal  in 
the  north  was  one  indispensable  item.  But  because  it  was  in 
the  north,  and  for  no  other  reason  that  I  can  discover,  it  was 
liable  to  objection  in  other  quarters. 

Another  obstacle  of  a  like  character  was  to  be  found  in  the 
motives,  aims,  and  designs  of  politicians.  As  yet  the  people 
rarely  elected  members  of  the  legislature  with  reference  to  any 
well-defined  notions  of  State  policy.  As  I  have  said  before, 
both  parties  were  so  thoroughly  partisan  upon  the  great  con- 
tests upon  national  questions,  that  local  affairs  were  but  little 
considered.  Sometimes  some  question  about  the  removal  of  a 
county  seat,  or  the  division  of  a  county,  might  influence  an  elec- 
tion. As  between  the  different  parties  it  seemed  to  be  more 
important  to  know  whether  a  candidate  for  the  legislature  was 
for  or  against  a  United  States  Bank,  a  protective  tariff,  internal 
improvements  by  the  federal  government,  or  distributing  the 
proceeds  of  the  public  lands ;  in  fine,  to  know  whether  he  was 
a  whig  or  a  democrat,  than  to  know  his  opinions  of  State  poli- 
tics. Of  all  the  local  questions  calculated  to  influence  elections, 
that  of  the  banks,  I  believe,  was  the  only  one  which  was  gen- 
erally considered. 

But  the  great  prevailing  principle  upon  which  each  party 
acted  in  selecting  candidates  for  office  was,  to  get  popular  men. 
Men  who  had  made  themselves  agreeable  to  the  people  by  a 
continual  show  of  friendship  and  condescension ;  men  who  were 
loved  for  their  gaiety,  cheerfulness,  apparent  goodness  of  heart, 
and  agreeable  manners.  Surly  and  stubborn  wisdom  stood  no 
chance  for  office.  The  proud  and  haughty  were  proscribed. 
The  scripture  proverb,  "  Be  humble  that  ye  may  be  exalted," 
was  understood  altogether  in  a  political  sense. 

One  would  think  that  nature  herself  had  fitted  out  and  indi- 
cated those  who  were  to  be  the  governors  of  this  country  ;  that 
in  making  some  men  mild,  humble,  amiable,  obliging,  and  con- 
descending, in  other  words,  in  fitting  some  men  to  be  popular 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  283 

and  others  to  be  unpopular,  Providence  itself  had  selected  our 
rulers.  This,  however,  would  be  a  mistake.  There  are  hun- 
dreds of  popular  men  who  have  none  of  these  gifts  by  nature. 
I  have  known  numbers  who  in  spite  of  nature  could  be  kind, 
humble,  friendly,  and  agreeable,  as  the  best.  These  are  talents 
which  can  be  acquired  by  a  diligent  practice.  A  friend  of  mine 
once  informed  me  that  he  intended  to  be  a  candidate  for  the 
legislature,  but  would  not  declare  himself  until  within  a  few 
days  of  the  election,  and  assigned  as  a  reason,  "  that  it  was  so 
very  hard  to  be  '  clever '  for  a  long  time  at  once."  This  same 
man  by  dint  of  practice  afterwards  acquired  the  art  of  being 
"  clever  "  all  the  time.  Of  all  the  talents  which  most  recom- 
mends a  man  to  his  friends  is  that  of  being  merry,  and  of 
laughing  agreeably.  Even  this  may  be  acquired.  I  have  seen 
hundreds  of  men  who  were  morose,  serious,  sour,  and  even 
sulky  by  nature,  commence  by  forcing  themselves  into  merri- 
ment and  laughter,  and  so  go  on  that  in  process  of  time  it  takes 
the  nicest  discernment  to  determine  whether  their  cachinations 
are  genuine  or  counterfeit. 

Politicians  generally  knew  better  how  to  get  an  office  than 
how  to  perform  its  duties.  Statesmanship  was  but  little 
studied ;  and  indeed  there  is  this  difference  all  the  world  over, 
between  a  statesman  and  a  mere  politician,  that  the  true  states- 
man looks  to  his  whole  country ;  he  devises  a  system  of  meas- 
ures, he  sees  the  connection  of  one  measure  with  another,  and 
he  makes  them  all  work  together  for  the  common  good ; 
whilst  the  mere  politician  busies  himself  altogether  in  selfish 
projects  to  get  office  without  caring  much  for  the  policy  or 
measures  he  advocates  after  he  gets  into  power.  If  he  dabbles 
in  measures  at  all  he  confines  himself  to  something  local  or 
temporary,  or  to  measures  of  mere  party ;  he  is  a  one-idea 
man,  for  the  view  of  his  mind  can  never  take  in  the  whole  field 
of  public  interest.  Hitherto  in  Dlinois  the  race  of  politicians 
has  been  more  numerous  and  more  popular  with  the  people, 


284  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

than  the  race  of  statesmen.  The  main  reason  of  this  has  been, 
that  too  many  people  vote  to  elect  men  as  a  favor  to  the  officer, 
not  with  a  view  to  require  service  from  them.  The  elections 
have  been  made  upon  the  principle  that  the  officer  is  to  be 
served,  not  the  people. 

Many  of  these  politicians  in  the  legislature  made  it  a  rule  to 
vote  against  all  new  measures,  about  which  the  opinions  of  the 
people  were  unknown;  shrewdly  calculating  that  if  such  a 
measure  passed  and  became  popular,  no  one  would  inquire  who 
had  opposed  it ;  but  if  it  turned  out  to  be  unpopular,  then  they 
could  show  by  the  journals  that  they  had  voted  against  it. 
And  if  the  measure  failed  of  success  and  became  popular,  the 
members  who  opposed  it  excused  themselves  to  the  people  by 
pretending  ignorance  of  the  will  of  their  constituents,  and  by 
promising  to  be  in  its  favor  if  again  elected. 

This  kind  of  policy  is  said  to  have  originated  with  John 
Grammar,  long  a  representative  or  senator  from  Union  county. 
He  was  elected  to  the  territorial  legislature  about  the  year 
1816,  and  was  continued  in  the  legislature  most  of  the  time  for 
twenty  years.  It  is  said  that  when  he  was  first  elected,  lacking 
the  apparel  necessary  for  a  member,  he  and  his  sons  gathered 
a  large  quantity  of  hazle-nuts,  which  were  taken  to  the  Ohio 
Saline  and  sold  for  cloth  to  make  a  coat  and  pantaloons.  The 
cloth  was  the  blue  strouding  used  by  the  Indians  for  breech- 
cloths.  When  it  was  brought  home  the  neighboring  women 
were  assembled  to  make  up  the  garments  of  the  new  member. 
The  cloth  was  measured  every  way,  cross,  lengthwise,  and  from 
corner  to  corner,  but  still  the  puzzling  truth  appeared  that  the 
pattern  was  scant.  The  women  concluded  to  make  of  it  a  very 
short  bob-tailed  coat,  and  a  long  pair  of  leggins,  which  being 
finished,  and  Mr.  Grammar  arrayed  in  them,  he  started  for 
Kaskaskia,  the  seat  of  government.  Here  he  continued  to  wear 
his  leggins  over  an  old  tattered  garment  until  the  poetry  bill 
(a  partial  appropriation)  passed,  when  he  provided  himself  with 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  285 

a  pair  of  breeches.  Mr.  Grammar  was  a  man  who  could 
neither  read  nor  write,  and  yet  he  had  the  honor  to  originate  a 
practice  which  has  been  much  followed  by  men  of  more  pre- 
tensions. 

Such  demagoguism  could  not  succeed  in  any  very  enlighten- 
ed country.  The  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  had  so  constantly 
increased  in  numbers,  so  far  beyond  the  means  of  education, 
that  it  is  doing  ourselves  no  injustice  to  admit  that  there  is 
some  ignorance  amongst  us.  But  this  evil  must  be  corrected  ; 
education  must  be  more  encouraged ;  knowledge  must  be  made 
more  abundant ;  more  of  the  people  must  be  taught  the  power 
of  thinking.  An  elevated,  numerous  democracy  must  be  cre- 
ated, which  shall  destroy  the  power  of  the  few  who  monopolize 
intellect.  Intellectual  power  is  power  of  the  most  fearful  kind ; 
and  it  is  folly  to  talk  of  "  equal  rights  and  equal  laws"  where 
some  few  have  it  and  the  many  have  it  not.  Where  this  is  the 
case,  it  is  folly  to  talk  of  self-government.  An  ignorant  people 
who  attempt  self-government,  are,  by  a  fixed  law  of  nature,  ob- 
liged to  fail  in  the  attempt ;  they  may  think  that  they  govern 
themselves,  when  they  are  only  led  by  the  nose  by  their  dema- 
gogues. A  government  of  demagogues  is  only  better  than 
anarchy. 

The  members  of  the  legislature,  after  having  been  elected, 
feeling  victorious  and  triumphant  over  their  adversaries  at  home, 
come  up  to  the  seat  of  government  in  a  happy  state  of  exulta- 
tion of  mind  and  self-complacency,  which  make  the  compliments 
and  flattery  with  which  they  are  received  most  soothing  and 
agreeable.  The  whole  world  of  aspirants  for  office  comes  with 
them.  A  speaker  of  the  lower  house,  and  officers  of  the  two 
houses,  are  to  be  elected,  the  first  thing.  For  these  offices 
there  are  many  candidates.  I  have  known  more  than  a  hundred 
candidates  for  door-keepers  of  the  two  houses.  Besides  these, 
there  are  numerous  candidates  for  secretaryships  and  clerkships. 
The  members  exhibit  themselves  in  public  places,  where  they 


286  HISTOET  OF  ILLINOIS. 

can  be  approached,  complimented,  flattered,  supplicated,  and 
teased,  by  the  several  aspirants  for  office,  who  fly  round  from 
one  member  to  another,  with  great  glee  and  activity,  making 
themselves  agreeable,  until  after  the  election.  After  these  elec- 
tions are  over,  there  is,  in  two  sessions  out  of  three,  an  United 
States  Senator  to  be  elected  ;  and  every  session  the  legislature 
elects  an  auditor  of  public  accounts,  State  treasurer,  public  print- 
er, attorney-general,  and  States'  attorneys  for  the  several  cir- 
cuits ;  and  fills  vacancies  on  the  bench  of  judges.  These  elec- 
tions are  not  all  brought  on  at  once,  but  a  few  of  them  at  a 
time  only,  so  as  to  keep  a  number  of  aspirants  at  the  seat  of 
government  during  the  whole  session,  and  husband  the  import- 
ance of  the  members  of  the  legislature,  which  in  a  great  meas- 
ure would  be  expended  and  gone  by  more  prompt  action  in  dis- 
posing of  the  seekers  for  office. 

It  is  during  a  session  of  the  legislature  that  all  political  ar- 
rangements are  made  for  the  next  campaign.  Here  it  is  decid- 
ed who  are  to  be  the  next  candidates  for  governor  and  United 
States  Senator,  and  who  to  go  to  Congress  from  the  various 
districts.  It  is  true  that  conventions  are  afterwards  held  to  make 
the  nominations  in  conformity  to  what  is  here  agreed ;  and  here 
too  it  is  determined  who  are  to  be  recommended  for  office  to 
the  general  government.  However  much  the  members  of  the 
legislature  may  lack  in  learning,  they  are  generally  shrewd, 
sensible  men,  who,  from  their  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and 
tact  in  managing  the  masses,  are  amongst  the  master  spirits  of 
their  several  counties.  They  are  such  generally  as  have  culti- 
vated the  arts  of  popularity  ;  know  how  to  shake  hands  with 
the  appearance  of  cordiality  and  friendship ;  are  good-natured 
and  social ;  possess  a  talent  for  smiling  and  laughing  in  a  pleas- 
ing way ;  and  of  saying  agreeable  things  in  conversation.  The 
great  majority  of  them  are  fired  with  an  ambition,  either  to  get 
back  to  the  legislature,  or  to  be  elected  or  appointed  to  some 
other  office.  This  puts  them  upon  the  alert  to  preserve  their 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  287 

popularity.  New  measures  are  considered  more  with  reference 
to  the  reception  they  may  meet  with  at  home  than  to  their  util- 
ity or  wisdom.  The  question  in  such  a  case  is,  how  will  such  a 
measure  take  with  the  people  ?  how  can  an  adversary,  in  his 
own  or  the  opposite  party,  build  an  objection  on  it  to  the  mem- 
ber who  has  voted  for  or  against  it  ?  and  how  is  it  to  affect  his 
next  election,  or  his  party  standing?  Many  members  thus 
guess  their  way  through  a  whole  session ;  and  experience  has 
proved  that  they  have  oftener  guessed  wrong  than  right ;  for  a 
fifth  part  of  them  never  get  back  to  the  legislature,  and  those 
who  do  are  such  as  consider  the  wisdom  and  soundness  of  meas- 
ures, such  as  have  the  courage,  the  ability,  and  go  home  with 
the  determination,  to  defend  their  acts,  by  an  appeal  to  the  judg- 
ments of  their  fellow  citizens. 

Very  many  public  men,  for  the  sake  of  present  popularity, 
do  wrong  knowingly,  to  secure  future  power,  which  they  may 
never  get.  If  it  were  the  practice  for  no  one  ever  "  to  seek  or 
decline  office,"  to  be  contented  without  it,  and  to  accept  it  as  a 
mere  duty,  then  there  would  be  no  motive  to  do  wrong,  but 
every  motive  to  do  good,  during  a  short  continuance  of  power. 
But  this  I  fear  can  never  be  carried  out  in  practice.  The  office- 
seeking  propensity  is  wonderful  indeed  ;  there  seems  to  be  no 
sufficient  reason  for  it.  Office  is  not  clothed  with  the  profit, 
power,  or  honor  to  make  it  desirable  for  either.  We  every  day 
see  private  men  who  are  more  honored  and  wealthy  than  any 
who  are  in  office.  In  our  government,  the  jealousy  of  liberty 
disarms  all  offices  of  power  ;  the  popular  notions  of  economv 
will  not  allow  them  to  be  profitable ;  nearly  one  half  the  peo- 
ple in  party  times,  so  far  from  honoring  a  public  officer,  take  a 
pleasure  in  despising  him ;  and  the  leaders  among  his  own  polit- 
ical friends,  unless  he  is  the  great  leader  of  a  party,  will  take 
care  that  he  shall  not  have  much  credit. 

The  out-door  politicians,  who  are  called  "  lobby  members," 
and  who  come  up  to  the  seat  of  government  for  office,  are  much 


288  HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS. 

like  the  members  themselves,  except  that  they  are  more  talent- 
ed and  cunning.  They  are  men  who  take  to  politics  as  a  trade, 
and  business,  and  means  of  living.  They  seek  to  control  the 
legislature  in  the  disposal  of  offices,  and  are  themselves  divided 
into  a  hundred  little  cliques  and  factions,  working  with  or 
against  each  other,  as  concurrence  or  opposition  may  be  most 
advantageous. 

A  popular  member  of  the  lobby  is  apt  to  be  some  lawyer 
who  practices  in  several  counties.  He  gets  acquainted  with  the 
leading  men  of  his  party  in  each  county.  He  aids  in  getting 
popular  men  nominated  as  candidates  for  the  legislature.  He 
makes  speeches  for  the  cause,  and  aids  his  friends  to  be  elected. 
As  he  is  naturally  superior  to  them,  it  is  no  wonder  if  they  look 
to  him  for  advice  and  assistance  in  performing  their  arduous 
duties.  By  such  means  he  will  contrive  to  control  four  or  five 
members  of  the  legislature.  This  he  will  make  known  to  all 
the  world  but  the  members  themselves.  He  is  then  looked  to 
as  a  man  of  importance.  He  has  so  many  transferable  votes 
in  the  legislature.  He  is  courted,  caressed,  and  promised  sup- 
port in  his  own  views,  in  return  for  his  countenance  to  the  pro- 
jects of  others.  A  lobby  member  will  make  but  a  poor  figure 
without  some  such  capital ;  and  as  he  comes  to  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment only  as  a  seeker  of  office,  he  never  troubles  himself 
about  measures,  unless  they  are  strictly  of  a  party  character. 
Other  great  measures  which  may  make  or  ruin  the  country,  he 
takes  no  interest  in,  unless  they  can  be  made  helpers  to  office. 
In  and  out  of  the  legislature,  the  machinery  of  government  is 
more  considered  than  the  measures  of  government.  The  fre- 
quent legislative  elections ;  the  running  to  and  fro  of  the  various 
cliques  and  factions,  before  each  election  ;  the  anxiety  of  mem- 
bers for  their  popularity  at  home ;  the  settlement  of  plans  to 
control  future  elections,  to  sustain  the  party  in  power,  on  the 
one  side,  and  to  overthrow  it,  on  the  part  of  the  minority,  ab- 
sorb nearly  the  whole  attention  of  the  legislature,  and  leave  but 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  289 

little  disposition  or  time  to  be  devoted  to  legitimate  legislation. 
So  much  is  this  the  case,  that  the  most  important  measures,  such 
as  may  have  the  greatest  influence  upon  the  well-being  of  the 
present  and  all  future  generations,  pass  through  the  two  houses, 
or  are  rejected,  almost  without  debate,  and  frequently  without 
notice.  Of  the  many  common-school  laws  which  have  passed 
our  legislature,  I  have  never  known  but  one  which  called  forth 
any  general  interest. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  professional  politicians ;  though  they 
both  aim  at  the  same  thing, — the  acquisition  of  office.  The  one 
sort  are  clever,  timid,  moderate,  and  accommodating ;  the  other 
kind  are  bold,  sanguine,  and  decided.  The  first  sort  will  agree 
for  the  time  being,  to  anything,  and  with  anybody.  These  men 
aim  to  be  affable,  pleasant,  facetious,  and  agreeable.  They 
make  it  a  matter  of  calculation  never  to  contradict,  to  advocate 
no  opinion,  to  give  no  offence,  to  make  no  enemies,  and  to  be 
amiable  and  agreeable  to  all.  They  are  called  by  the  others 
"  milk  and  water  men,"  and  are  much  despised  by  the  bold, 
decided,  ultraist.  Sometimes  the  "  milk  and  water"  man  has 
the  advantage ;  for  as  he  swims  and  slides  easily  and  smoothly 
along,  never  contradicting,  accommodating  to  all,  and  friendly 
to  all,  he  has  frequently  to  be  taken  up  in  party  contests,  as  the 
"  most  available  candidate."  The  other  sort  of  professed  poli- 
ticians are  the  men  of  energy  and  action.  They  are  the  fore- 
most in  the  fight  with  the  common  enemy.  They  are  the  ora- 
tors for  the  people;  the  writers  for  the  newspapers;  the 
organizers  and  disciplinarians  of  party ;  the  denouncers  of 
treachery  and  defection ;  and  work  night  and  day  for  victory 
in  the  party  contests.  They  are  always  much  despised  by  the 
opposite  party  in  politics ;  and  are  always  selected  as  especial 
objects  of  abuse  and  detraction.  The  minority  party  frequently 
have  credit  enough  to  destroy  the  popularity  of  a  champion  of 
the  enemy,  even  with  his  own  party.  He  is  hated  among  the 
best  men  of  his  opponents.  These  opponents  may  have  no  di- 

13 


290  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

rect  political  influence  out  of  their  own  ranks ;  but  many  of 
them  are  credited  as  gentlemen  of  veracity ;  their  statements 
in  relation  to  mere  persons  are  believed  even  by  political  op- 
ponents. These  statements,  though  often  prompted  by  political 
hatred,  are  uttered  boldly,  and  with  an  appearance  of  candor, 
by  men  who  are  fair  dealers,  good  neighbors,  and  known  to 
speak  the  truth  in  all  matters  of  neighborhood  concernment. 
The  popularity  of  the  champion  is  destroyed.  He  cannot  get 
all  the  votes  of  his  own  party,  and  not  one  from  amongst  his 
opponents.  He  is  no  longer  considered  to  be  an  available  can- 
didate, and  has  to  give  place,  in  all  doubtful  contests,  to  his  in- 
offensive "  milk  and  water"  compatriot.  For  it  is  a  rule  with 
all  parties  to  select  only  such  candidates  as  can  get  the  largest 
vote. 

A  politician,  however,  of  the  decided,  sanguine  kind,  if  he  is 
a  man  of  sense  and  tact,  if  he  knows  how  far  to  go  in  the  ad- 
vocacy of  his  own  party,  and  when  to  stop ;  if  he  knows  how  to 
abuse  the  opposite  party,  without  giving  personal  offence  ;  is  in 
the  surest  road  to  advancement.  This  kind  of  politician  is  most 
usually  for  extreme  measures.  Nothing  moderate  will  suit 
him.  He  must  be  in  advance  of  everybody  else.  He  aims  to 
be  a  leader;  and  to  be  one  he  thinks  he  must  be  ahead  in 
everything.  In  the  democratic  party  he  is  an  ultraist  •,  he  can 
hardly  find  measures  sufficiently  democratic  to  suit  him.  He 
is  a  tactician,  a  disciplinarian ;  ever  belongs  to  some  organiza- 
tion; never  bolts  a  nomination,  and  never  votes  against  his 
own  party.  In  the  whig  party,  he  is  an  old  federalist ;  he  has 
no  confidence  in  the  people  for  self-government ;  he  is  in  favor 
of  a  property  qualification  for  electors,  and  is  always  against 
the  democrats,  right  or  wrong,  and  against  everything  demo- 
cratic, and  firmly  believes  all  the  time  that  the  country  is  just 
going  to  be  ruined.  But  in  whatever  party  he  may  be,  when- 
ever that  party  is  dominant,  he  aims  to  be  considered  a  better 
party  man,  to  work  truer  in  the  party  harness  than  any  one 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  291 

else,  and  if  he  can  so  distinguish  himself,  he  mounts  at  once  to 
the  leadership.  All  the  active  office-seeking  tribe  are  first  his 
allies,  and  afterwards  his  followers.  It  is  a  fact  well  known, 
that  one  party  is  governed  by  the  office-holders,  and  the  other 
by  the  office-hunters. 

Under  such  circumstances  it  would  be  strange  indeed  if  there 
had  been  much  disposition  anywhere  to  make  the  future  pros- 
perity of  the  State  a  consideration  paramount  to  all  others.* 

Before  I  came  into  office,  the  public  mind  was  settled  on 
nothing  as  the  future  policy  of  the  State.  The  people  of  Bond 
county,  as  soon  as  the  internal  improvement  system  passed, 
had  declared  in  a  public  meeting,  that  the  system  must  lead  to 
taxation  and  utter  ruin ;  that  the  people  were  not  bound  to  pay 
any  of  the  debt  to  be  contracted  for  it ;  and  that  Bond  county 
would  never  assist  in  paying  a  cent  of  it.  Accordingly,  they 
refused  to  pay  taxes  for  several  years.  When  the  system  went 
down,  and  had  left  the  State  in  the  ruinous  condition  predicted 
by  the  Bond  county  meeting,  many  people  remembered  that 
there  might  be  a  question  raised  as  to  the  obligation  of  pay- 
ment. Public  men  everywhere,  of  all  parties,  stood  in  awe  of 
this  question ;  there  was  a  kind  of  general  silence  as  to  what 
should  be  done.  No  one  could  foresee  what  would  be  popular 
or  unpopular.  The  two  great  political  parties  were  watching 
each  other  with  eagle  eyes,  to  see  that  one  should  not  get  the 
advantage  of  the  other.  The  whigs,  driven  to  desperation  by 
repeated  ill  success  in  elections,  were  many  of  them  in  favor  of 
repudiation  as  a  means  of  bettering  their  party.  The  Sanga- 
mon  Journal  and  the  Alton  Telegraph,  the  two  leading  whig 

*  When  Galena  was  first  settled,  it  is  said  that  the  only  question 
asked  concerning  a  new  comer  was,  whether  he  would  steal  or  not? 
If  it  was  answered  that  he  would  not  steal,  he  was  considered  a  very 
honest  man.  So  in  elections  it  was  now  asked  only  whether  a  candi- 
date was  a  whig  or  a  democrat  ?  If  the  answer  to  this  was  satisfactory, 
the  candidate  was  considered  to  be  safe  and  a  great  statesman. 


292  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

newspapers  of  the  State,  boldly  took  ground  that  the  debt  never 
could  and  never  would  be  paid,  and  that  it  was  of  no  use  to  say 
anything  more  about  it.  Very  many  democrats  were  in  favor 
of  the  same  course,  for  fear  of  losing  the  power  the  democratic 
party  already  possessed.  It  was  thought  to  be  a  very  danger- 
ous subject  to  meddle  with.  At  a  democratic  convention  which 
nominated  Mr.  Snyder  for  governor,  a  resolution  against  repu- 
diation, offered  by  Mr.  Arnold  of  Chicago,  was  laid  on  the  table 
by  an  overwhelming  vote  of  the  convention,  so  as  not  to  com- 
mit the  party  one  way  or  the  other.  It  was  evident  that  this 
was  to  be  a  troublesome  question ;  and  a  great  many  of  the 
politicians  on  both  sides  were  as  ready  to  take  one  side  of  it  as 
the  other ;  and  their  choice  depended  upon  which  might  finally 
appear  to  be  most  popular.  The  whigs  were  afraid  if  they  ad- 
vocated the  debt-paying  policy,  the  democrats  would  take  the 
other  side,  and  leave  the  whigs  no  chance  of  ever  coming  into  a 
majority.  And  the  democrats  feared  that  if  they  advocated  a 
correct  policy,  the  other  side  might  be  more  popular,  and  might 
be  taken  by  the  whigs.  I  speak  only  of  the  leaders  of  parties, 
amongst  whom  on  all  sides  there  was  a  strong  suspicion  that 
repudiation  might  be  more  popular  than  taxation. 

Ifc  is  my  solemn  belief  that  when  I  came  into  office,  I  had  the 
power  to  make  Illinois  a  repudiating  State.  It  is  true  I  was  not 
the  leader  of  any  party ;  but  my  position  as  governor  would 
have  given  me  leadership  enough  to  have  carried  the  demo- 
cratic party,  except  in  a  few  counties  in  the  north,  in  favor  of 
repudiation.  If  I  had  merely  stood  still  and  done  nothing,  the 
result  would  have  been  the  same.  In  that  case  a  majority  of 
both  parties  would  have  led  to  either  active  or  passive  repudia- 
tion. The  politicians  on  neither  side,  without  a  bold  lead  to 
the  contrary,  by  some  one  high  in  office,  would  never  have 
dared  to  risk  their  popularity  by  being  the  first  to  advocate  an 
increase  of  taxes  to  be  paid  by  a  tax-hating  people. 

Such  were  the  people  and  such  were  the  great  mass  of  politi- 


HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS.  293 

cians  of  the  State  of  Illinois  in  1842.  In  general,  the  legisla- 
ture meant  to  do  right,  and  to  do  the  best  for  the  country ;  but 
here,  as  everywhere  else,  there  were  serious  obstacles  to  con- 
tend with  before  the  policy  of  the  country,  in  reference  to  the 
deplorable  state  of  public  affairs,  could  be  settled  upon  the  best 
footing.  I  have  already  said  that  every  one  had  a  plan  of  his 
own  to  restore  the  State  to  prosperity ;  and  it  may  not  be  im- 
proper to  devote  a  page  or  two  to  some  of  them. 

All  parties  proposed  some  mode  of  putting  the  banks  into 
liquidation,  except  a  few  whigs  and  a  very  few  democrats,  who 
would  have  been  willing  to  compel  them  to  a  resumption  of 
specie  payments,  and  continue  their  business.  Of  those  who 
were  in  favor  of  winding  them  up,  a  small  portion  declared  in 
favor  of  repealing  their  charters ;  of  the  appointment  of  com- 
missioners on  the  part  of  the  State,  who  were  to  take  charge  of 
their  specie  and  other  effects,  pay  their  debts,  and  collect  what 
was  due  to  them.  But  much  the  larger  portion  finally  favored 
a  compromise,  by  means  of  which  the  State  would  at  once  be 
paid  for  its  stock,  or  nearly  so ;  and  the  banks  would  settle 
their  business  and  go  out  of  existence  under  the  direction  of 
their  own  officers.  The  State  Bank  held  $1,750,000  of  State 
bonds,  and  $294,000  in  Auditor's  warrants,  together  with  scrip 
amounting  in  the  whole  to  $2,100,000,  which  it  was  willing  to 
surrender  at  once,  and  dissolve  all  further  connection  with  the 
State.  The  bank  at  Shawneetown  was  willing  to  surrender  a  half- 
a-million  immediately,  and  to"  engage  to  pay  the  residue  on  a 
short  credit.  This  bank  held  $469,998  in  Auditor's  warrants, 
which  were  to  be  surrendered  as  a  part  of  the  first  payment. 

There  was  no  party  in  the  legislature  of  1842-'3,  in  favor  of 
an  immediate  increase  of  taxation  to  pay  interest  on  the  public 
debt.  Many  there  were  who  wanted  to  do  nothing  for  five 
or  ten  years  ;  and  to  trust  to  luck  and  accident  for  the  means 
of  improvement.  There  were  a  very  few  who  were  in  favor 
of  repudiating  the  whole  debt  of  the  State,  who  denied  the 


294  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

power  of  the  legislature  to  bind  the  people  by  contracting  it ; 
and  who  were  in  favor  of  giving  up  to  the  public  creditor  all 
the  property  purchased  with  the  borrowed  money,  and  all  the 
public  works  constructed  by  it,  as  all  that  ever  could  or  ought 
to  be  done  in  the  way  of  payment.  But  the  great  majority  of 
the  legislature  held  different  opinions.  Resolutions  were  passed 
which  clearly  stated  the  inability  of  the  State  to  meet  its  en- 
gagements, and  fully  recognized  our  moral  and  legal  obligation 
to  provide  for  ultimate  payment.  The  pay  immediately  was 
out  of  the  question.  Heavy  taxation  then  would  have  depopu- 
lated the  country,  and  the  debt  would  never  be  paid. 

The  State  had  purchased  42,000  acres  of  land  under  the  in- 
ternal improvement  system ;  the  United  States  had  given  us 
210,000  acres  more  under  the  distribution  law  of  1841  •  we 
owned  23Q,467  acres  of  canal  lands,  and  3,491  town  lots  in 
Chicago  and  other  towns  on  the  canal ;  we  owned  what  work 
had  been  done  on  the  canal  itself;  and  various  pieces  of  unfin- 
ished railroad  in  all  parts  of  the  State.  And  we  also  owned  a 
large  quantity  of  railroad  iron,  and  the  stock  in  the  banks.  This 
property  was  our  only  resource,  short  of  taxation  to  pay  the 
whole  debt,  and  it  became  us  to  apply  it  to  the  best  advantage. 

One  party  proposed  that  an  offer  to  the  public  creditors 
should  be  made  of  this  property  upon  condition  that  they  would 
finish  the  canal,  and  as  many  of  the  railroads  as  they  might 
choose  to  finish,  and  grant  an  acquittance  of  the  whole  debt  by 
a  surrender  of  public  securities.  It  was  evident  that  this  plan 
could  not  succeed.  Many  of  the  State  bonds  were  held  hi  trust 
for  orphans  and  for  charitable  purposes.  The  holders  of  such 
could  not  consent  to,  and  if  they  did,  they  could  not  comply 
with  such  an  arrangement.  But  the  larger  portion  of  our  debt 
was  owned  by  heavy  capitalists,  whose  business  it  was  to  lend 
money  to  States  and  nations,  on  a  mere  pledge  of  the  public 
faith.  It  was  clear  that  this  class  could  better  afford  to  lose  all 
we  owed  them  than  to  set  the  example  of  such  a  compromise 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS. 

to  the  borrowing  world.  If  they  made  such  an  arrangement 
with  Illinois,  they  must  soon  expect  similar  propositions  from 
all  other  indebted  States.  Such  an  example  would  be  conta- 
gious, and  would  put  an  end  to  their  business  of  lending  by  de- 
stroying the  only  security  a  nation  can  give — an  unsullied  pub- 
lic faith. 

There  were  some  few  persons  who  were  in  favor  of  repudiat- 
ing the  whole  debt,  of  setting  the  moral  sense  of  mankind  at 
defiance,  and  of  absolutely  doing  nothing,  and  worse  than  no- 
thing ;  for  they  proposed,  that  in  winding  up  the  banks,  by  a 
total  repeal  of  their  charters,  the  public  securities  held  by  these 
institutions,  and  which  they  were  willing  to  surrender  to  the 
State,  in  payment  of  its  stock,  should  be  put  into  the  market 
and  sold  as  assets ;  and  that  if,  after  payment  of  the  debts  of 
the  banks,  anything  should  be  left,  to  be  divided  among  the 
stockholders,  the  share  coming  to  the  State  should  be  used  to 
purchase  an  equal  sum  in  bonds. 

During  the  summer  of  1842,  Justin  Butterfield,  an  eminent 
lawyer  of  Chicago,  had  conversed  with  Arthur  Bronson,*  one 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  George  R.  Babcock,  Esq.,  of  the  city  of 
Buffalo,  K  Y.,  to  Justin  Butterfield,  Esq.,  of  Chicago,  Illinois  : 

.  .  .  .  "  I  have  a  distinct  remembrance  that  Mr.  Bronson  spoke 
to  you  in  the  summer  of  1842  at  Chicago,  on  the  subject  of  the  unfinish- 
ed canal ;  and  asked  if  anything  to  render  available  the  large  expendi- 
ture which  had  been  made  upon ;  and  to  rescue  the  credit  of  the  State 
from  the  abyss  in  which  it  was  plunged.  You  replied,  in  substance, 
that  the  work  would  sooner  or  later  be  resumed ;  that  a  State  so  large 
and  containing  such  elements  of  future  greatness  as  Illinois,  would  at 
some  day  not  distant  complete  a  work  so  essential  to  its  prosperity, 
and  that  the  canal  and  the  canal  lands  would  reimburse  the  cost  of  its 
construction.  Mr.  Bronson  seemed  gratified  to  find  you  so  sanguine  in 
your  expectations,  and  invited  you  to  meet  him  at  the  Lake  House  that 
evening,  to  confer  farther  on  the  subject  of  its  details.  In  the  evening 
there  was  a  long  discussion,  mainly  between  Mr.  Bronson  and  yourself, 
of  the  project,  which,  as  I  understand  it,  has  been  subsequently  carried 
out  by  the  State  and  its  creditors.  The  leading  feature  of  the  plan,  aa 


296  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

of  the  great  capitalists  of  New  York,  who  was  interested  in  our 
State  stocks,  and  a  large  land-holder  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
State.  Mr.  Bronson  was  said  to  be  a  man  of  fine  talents,  deep- 
ly skilled  in  finance,  and  to  possess  the  confidence  of  capitalists 
both  hi  Europe  and  America.  Mr.  Butterfield  suggested  to  Mr. 
Bronson  that  if  the  canal  property  could  be  conveyed  in  trust, 
to  secure  a  new  advance  of  money,  and  if  the  State  creditors 
could  be  assured  that  the  State  intended  to  do  something  by 
way  of  taxation  or  otherwise,  to  sustain  its  credit,  something 
might  be  done  to  obtain  money  to  complete  the  canal ;  which 
was  agreed  to  by  Mr.  Bronson.  Mr.  Butterfield  repeated  this 
conversation  to  Mr.  Michael  Ryan ;  and  Mr.  Ryan,  being  after- 
wards at  New  York,  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Bronson,  Mr. 
Leavitt,  and  other  wealthy  persons  of  the  eastern  cities,  and  of 
London.  A  plan  was  then  devised,  and  approved  by  them,  in 
pursuance  of  the  suggestions  of  Mr.  Butterfield,  to  the  effect 

I  recollect  it,  -was  to  induce  the  bond-holders  to  advance  the  funds  ne- 
cessary to  complete  the  canal,  by  a  pledge  of  the  canal,  its  lands,  and 
revenues,  for  the  payment  of  the  advance,  and  a  stipulated  priority  of 
the  payment  of  the  stocks  then  held  by  the  persons  so  making  the  ad- 
vance ;  while  those  creditors  who  refused  to  contribute  were  to  be  post- 
poned until  the  preferred  debt  should  be  discharged.  I  cannot  say  who 
suggested  this  plan,  as  I  was  not  in  the  room  when  the  conversation  com- 
menced. Mr.  Bronson  frequently  expressed  fears  that  the  foreign  bond- 
holders would  regard  the  offered  priority  as  a  lure  to  obtain  more  cash, 
as  well  as  a  fraud  on  those  of  thein.  fellow  sufferers  who  should  not 
make  the  required  advance.  For  this  reason,  I  am  of  opinion  that  the 

plan  was  not  suggested  by  Mr.  Bronson 

"  GEOKGK  R.  BABCOCK." 

It  is  due  to  Mr.  Butterfield  to  say,  that  he  mentioned  this  plan  of 
getting  money  for  the  canal,  and  of  the  foregoing  conversation  with  Mr. 
Bronson,  some  considerable  time  before  Ryan's  visit  to  New  York  iu 
the  fall  of  1842.  Mr.  Butterfield  also  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of  draw- 
ing the  canal  bill  of  1842-'3,  which  was  much  more  perfect  when  it 
came  from  his  hands  than  after  it  had  passed  the  legislature 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  297 

that  the  holders  of  canal  bonds  would  advance  $1,600,000  (the 
sum  reported  to  be  necessary  by  the  chief  engineer)  to  com- 
plete the  canal.  In  return  for  which,  the  State  was  to  convey 
the  canal  property  in  trust,  to  secure  the  new  loan,  as  well  as 
for  the  ultimate  payment  of  the  whole  canal  debt ;  and  was  to 
lay  some  moderate  tax  to  pay  some  portion  of  the  accruing  in- 
terest on  the  whole  debt. 

Intimately  connected  with  the  success  of  this  plan  was  the 
legislation  we  might  adopt  on  the  subject  of  the  banks.  If  we 
proceeded  with  an  insane  violence,  by  repealing  their  charters, 
at  the  very  moment  that  we  were  chartering  a  company  and  in- 
viting the  investment  of  money  to  complete  the  canal,  we  could 
expect  no  less  than  to  frighten  capitalists  away  from  the  under- 
taking. We  would  show  them  at  once  that  we  professed  to  have 
the  power,  and  in  all  probability  would  exercise  it,  to  repeal 
the  new  one  as  well  as  the  old.  But  there  were  a  part  of  the 
democrats  who  believed  in  the  right  of  the  legislature  to  repeal 
all  acts  of  incorporation,  as  well  private  as  public.  They  had 
been  fighting  on  this  question  for  years,  and  now  was  a  good 
opportunity  for  putting  it  in  force.  The  banks  were  odious  to 
the  people  for  long-continued  and  repeated  delinquencies.  It 
was  certain  to  be  popular  to  be  in  favor  of  the  most  extreme 
measures  against  them ;  so  that  when  it  became  a  question 
whether  they  should  be  strangled  to  death  by  slow  degrees,  or 
delivered  over  to  be  scalped  and  tomahawked  with  barbarian 
ferocity,  many  of  the  professional  politicians  decided  for  the 
most  ultra  course.  This  course  was  indeed  the  best  for  the 
politician,  but  it  was  the  worst  for  the  country.  The  politician 
might  increase  his  reputation  in  his  party,  he  might  earn  the 
name  of  a  smashing  democrat,  but  the  canal  would  never  be 
made,  and  nothing  would  be  done  to  restore  the  public  credit. 

Gov.  Carlin,  my  immediate  predecessor,  though  confessedly  an 
honest  man  in  his  private  dealings,  recommended  repeal  in  his 
valedictory  message.  When  he  first  came  to  the  seat  of  gov- 

13* 


298  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

eminent,  he  showed  me  his  message,  recommending  wise,  just, 
and  honorable  measures  to  the  banks.  He  also  showed  me 
what  he  had  prepared  on  the  subject  of  repeal,  assuring  me 
that  he  had  decided  not  to  put  it  in.  But  shortly  afterwards 
some  of  the  ultraists  got  hold  of  him,  and  induced  him  to  alter 
his  message,  by  recommending  repeal.  This  recommendation 
embarrassed  me  then,  and  has  embarrassed  me  ever  since. 
Here  was  a  respectable  recommendation  of  something  more 
ultra  than  I  thought  was  warranted  by  the  best  interests  of  the 
State.  It  gave  countenance  to  the  ultraists  ;  they  could  rally 
around  it, — win  a  character  for  stern  and  inflexible  democrats. 
It  at  once  put  them  ahead  of  the  new  governor  and  his  friends. 
By  the  way,  I  will  here  remark,  that  it  is  the  constant  trick  of 
the  wily,  artful  politician,  to  affect  ultraism.  Many  of  them 
are  without  talents  or  merits  of  any  other  sort ;  and  if  they 
were  not  a  little  ahead. of  everybody  else  in  espousing  extreme 
measures,  there  would  be  nothing  of  them  at  all.  Gov.  Carlin 
also,  in  his  last  message,  despaired  of  the  canal.  He  had  not  the 
genius  to  see  how  money  might  be  raised  to  complete  it,  except 
by  petitioning  Congress  for  an  increased  donation  of  land,  then 
certain  never  to  be  granted. 

There  was  quite  a  party  out  of  the  legislature  expectants  of 
office,  and  others  who  hoped  that  if  the  banks  were  repealed 
out  of  existence  and  put  into  forcible  liquidation,  some  of  them 
might  be  appointed  commissioners,  and  put  in  charge  of  their 
specie  and  effects.  It  was  known  that  if  the  bank  debts  were 
paid  pro  rata,  a  large  amount  of  specie  would  remain  on  hand 
for  a  year  or  more ;  the  use  of  which  could  be  made  profitable 
in  the  meantime.  Then  there  were  to  be  bank  attorneys  and 
agents  in  collecting  and  securing  debts  ;  and  the  whole  would 
furnish  a  handsome  picking  for  the  buzzards  and  vultures  who 
hang  about  lobbies  and  surround  legislatures. 

As  for  myself,  I  decided  at  once  in  favor  of  a  compromise ; 
and  I  gave  notice  to  all  these  greedy  expectants  of  office  who 


HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS.  299 

were  hanging  around  with  eyes  straining  to  devour  their  sub- 
stance, that  if  the  banks  were  repealed,  and  the  appointment  of 
commissioners  were  vested  in  me,  none  of  them  could  expect 
an  appointment.  This  I  know  cooled  some  of  them. 

This  was  the  most  important  subject  which  came  before  the 
legislature  of  1842.  State  stock  to  the  amount  of  $3,100,000 
was  at  stake ;  the  canal  depended  upon  it ;  and  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  give  a  short  statement  of  the  argument  on  each  side  of 
the  question. 

It  was  said  in  favor  of  repeal  that  the  banks  had  so  many 
times  baffled  the  legislature,  the  most  decisive  steps  ought  to 
be  taken  with  them,  so  as  to  put  them  to  an  end  at  once.  The 
legislature  ought  to  make  sure  work  of  it  once,  now  that  they 
were  assembled  and  had  the  power.  The  fact  that  they  had 
violated  their  charters  was  notorious ;  the  decision  of  which 
ought  not  to  be  left  to  the  doubtful  chance  of  a  suit  at  law  in 
the  courts.  That  the  charters  ought  to  be  repealed  totally,  so 
as  forever  to  prevent  the  chance  of  their  revival  or  resurrection 
by  any  future  legislature.  The  bonds  held  by  the  banks  ought 
to  be  sold  to  help  pay  their  debts.  The  State  as  a  stockholder, 
had  no  more  right  than  another  to  be  paid  for  its  stock  and  re- 
tire from  the  concern  before  the  bank  debts  were  paid.  The 
specie  would  never  be  paid  out  pro  rata ;  the  circulation  had 
been  purchased  and  was  now  held  by  private  stockholders,  who 
would  refuse  to  present  it  for  payment,  in  hopes  that  another 
legislature  would  renew  their  charters.  The  most  stringent 
laws  might  be  passed  for  the  government  of  the  banks,  yet  ex- 
perience had  shown  that  as  long  as  they  had  life  they  would  set 
all  laws  at  defiance  as  soon  as  the  Assembly  adjourned ;  and 
the  legislature  would  have  to  do  at  the  next  session  what  they 
had  omitted  to  do  now.  The  compromise  proposed  was  a  bad 
bargain  for  the  State.  The  stock  was  worth  more  than  the 
bonds ;  the  assets  of  the  banks  were  amply  sufficient  to  pay  all 


300  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

their  debts,  and  a  dividend  to  the  State  as  a  stockholder,  which 
would  greatly  exceed  the  value  of  these  bonds. 

On  the  side  of  a  compromise  it  was  argued  that  if  the  banks 
had  ever  baffled  the  legislature,  it  was  hi  the  day  of  their  power 
when  their  bills  were  in  credit,  and  they  had  money  to  lend  to 
individuals  and  to  pay  the  legislature.  In  the  day  of  their 
power  they  had  friends,  many  of  whom  were  the  first  to  desert 
them  in  their  troubles  and  weakness.  They  were  shorn  of  their 
strength.  There  were  none  so  poor  now  as  to  do  them  rever- 
ence. It  was  folly  to  talk  of  the  power  of  a  broken  bank  in 
universal  discredit  with  the  people.  They  were  too  deeply  and 
generally  despised  for  any  legislature  of  any  party  to  revive 
them.  It  was  just  as  likely  that  the  internal  improvement  sys- 
tem would  be  revived.  It  would  be  the  height  of  folly  to  suf- 
fer the  bonds  held  by  the  banks  to  be  sold.  At  present  they 
were  selling  for  only  fourteen  cents  on  the  dollar.  If  $2,500,- 
000  were  added  to  those  already  in  the  market,  the  price  must 
be  greatly  reduced.  If  we  rejected  an  offer  to  get  them  up  at 
once  on  such  favorable  terms,  and  depended  on  a  doubtful  divi- 
dend to  re-purchase  them  at  a  discount,  if  we  declared  it  our 
policy  to  go  into  the  market  like  a  common  swindler  to  pur- 
chase our  own  paper  at  less  than  its  face,  the  whole  world 
would  know  that  we  never  intended  to  pay  one  cent  of  the  pub- 
lic debt.  A  sale  under  such  circumstances  would  be  of  but 
little  use  to  the  banks  or  their  creditors,  but  would  subject  the 
State  to  certain  loss  or  disgrace. 

The  advocates  of  repeal  say  that  the  banks  are  insolvent,  and 
cannot  pay  their  debts  if  the  bonds  are  not  sold  ;  in  the  next 
breath  they  say  that  the  State  is  making  a  bad  bargain ;  that 
the  stock  is  worth  more  than  the  bonds,  when  it  is  plain  that 
the  stock  is  worth  nothing,  unless  the  banks  pay  every  dollar 
of  their  debt.  But  the  truth  is,  the  banks  can  pay  their  debts, 
and  will  have  something  left  for  the  stockholders.  The  credit- 
ors are  in  no  danger  of  eventual  loss.  But  if  repeal  is  to  sue- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  301 

ceed ;  if  their  specie  and  other  effects  are  to  be  given  in  charge 
to  public  officers ;  neither  creditors  nor  stockholders  may  ever 
get  anything.  Who  are  these  public  officers  to  be  ?  Are  they 
to  be  the  public  officers  who  mismanaged  the  old  State  Bank 
of  1821,  and  lost  to  the  State  more  than  its  entire  capital  ?  Are 
they  to  be  some  of  the  late  fund  commissioners,  whose  blun- 
ders saddled  the  State  with  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars  in 
debt,  for  which  the  first  cent  was  never  received  ?  Are  they 
to  be  the  commissioners  of  the  board  of  public  works,  whose 
reckless  squandering  of  the  public  moneys  will  be  memorable 
while  time  lasts  1  Or  are  they  to  be  any  of  the  same  descrip- 
tion of  persons  ?  And  more  particularly,  are  they  to  be  taken 
from  the  hangers-on  about  the  seat  of  government  ?  We  have 
had  enough  in  our  history  of  the  management  of  money  mat- 
ters by  public  officers. 

The  legislature  might  repeal,  but  they  were  not  clothed  with 
all  the  power  of  this  government.  The  banks  were  determined 
to  contest  their  right  to  repeal.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  had  already  declared  against  it  in  the  Dartmouth 
College  case.  They  would  get  an  injunction  from  the  federal 
court  against  our  commissioners.  The  case  would  be  litigated 
for  years  at  home ;  it  would  then  be  carried  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  It  would  be  years  again  before  a 
final  decision,  and  then  it  was  as  likely  to  be  against  us-  as  for 
us.  In  the  meantime,  if  the  bank  officers  were  so  little  to  be 
trusted,  what  security  had  we  that  their  assets  would  not  be 
devoured  by  the  expenses  of  litigation,  or  squandered  by  dis- 
honesty. 

More  than  all  this,  repeal  was  a  violent  measure.  It  was 
calculated  to  alarm  capitalists.  We  were  about  to  incorporate 
a  company  to  complete  the  canal.  We  were  not  able  to  do  it 
ourselves ;  our  only  hope  was  in  a  company.  Capitalists,  from 
whom  alone  the  money  to  do  it  could  be  expected,  would  rea- 
sonably conclude  that  such  a  government  could  not  be  trusted. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

.They  might  subscribe  to  the  stock,  expend  their  money,  make 
the  canal,  and  then  some  hurra  of  a  popular  excitement  would 
result  in  repealing  them  out  of  their  rights. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  the  arguments  in  favor  of  a  compromise 
were  conclusive  on  every  point.  The  villanies  charged  upon 
the  new  owners  of  the  Shawneetown  Bank,  before  the  compro- 
mise bill  passed,  were  no  worse  than  what  could  have  been 
committed  before  any  law  whatever  could  have  been  passed  by 
this  legislature.  No  such  law  can  be  passed  in  less  than  six 
weeks,  and  before  the  end  of  such  a  period,  a  roguish  directory 
could  have  committed  much  worse  villanies  than  any  which 
have  been  charged,  and  such  would  most  probably  have  been 
committed,  and  no  repealing  act  or  after  legislation  could,  as -it 
did  not,  reach  the  mischief.  But  what  availed  argument  or 
reason  against  the  rapacity  of  hungry  buzzards  hunting  profit- 
able office,  or  against  the  low  ambition  of  the  professed  poli- 
tician, who  ever  stands  ready  to  sacrifice  the  best  interest  of 
his  country,  so  that  he  may  be  reckoned  a  first-rate  party  man ; 
one  of  your  "  whole  hog"  fellows ;  and  by  such  means  stand  on 
vantage  ground  as  a  candidate  for  office.  Thank  God,  there 
were  but  few  such  patriots  in  the  legislature. 

A  bill  was  brought  into  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
favor  of  a  compromise  with  the  State  Bank,  and  this  important 
measure  passed  that  body  by  a  vote  of  107  in  the  affirmative, 
and  4  against  it,  on  the  ayes  and  noes  as  follows  :  Those  who 
voted  in  the  affirmative,  were  Messrs.  Adams,  Aldrich,  Andrus, 
Arnold,  Bailhache,  Bibbons,  Bishop,  Blair,  Blakeman,  Bone, 
Bradley,  Brown  of  Pike,  Brown  of  Sangamon,  Browning,  Bry- 
ant, Burklow,  Busey,  Caldwell,  Canady,  Cloud,  Cochran,  Col- 
lins, Compton,  Cartwright,  Davis  of  Bond,  Davis  of  William- 
son, Dickinson,  Dollins,  Dougherty,  Douglass,  Dubois,  Ed- 
wards, Epler,  Ervin,  Ewing,  Ficklin,  Flanders,  Fowler,  Garrett, 
Glass,  Gobble,  Graves,  Gregg,  Green  of  Clay,  Green  of  Greene, 
Haley,  Hambaugh,  Hannaford,  Hanson,  Harper,  Hatch,  Hick, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  303 

Hicks,  Hinton,  Homey,  Howard,  Hunsaker,  Jackson  of  M'Hen- 
ry,  Jackson  of  Whiteside,  Jonas,  Kendall,  Koerner,  Kuyhendall, 
Longworthy,  Lawler,  Lockhard,  Logan,  M'Bride,  M'Clernand, 
M'Donald  of  Calhoun,  M'Donald  of  Joe  Davies's.  M'Millan, 
Manning,  Miller,  Mitchell,  Murphy,  Nesbit,  Norris,  Owen, 
Penn,  Pickering,  Pratt,  Scott,  Sharp,  Shirley,  Simms,  Smith  of 
Crawford,  Smith  of  Hancock,  Spider,  Starne,  Starr,  Stewart, 
Stockton,  Tackerberry,  Thompson,  Vance,  Vandeveer,  Vin- 
yard,  West,  Weatherford,  Wheat,  Whitcomb,  White,  Whitten, 
Woodworth,  Yates,  and  Mr.  Speaker — 107. 

Those  who  voted  in  the  negative  were  :  Messrs.  Ames,  Bell, 
Brinkley,  and  Loy — 4. 

This  bill  was  drawn  up  by  myself,  and  agreed  to  by  the  bank. 
It  was  then  shown  to  Mr.  McClernand,  the  chairman  of  the 
finance  committee  of  the  lower  house.  The  chairman  called  a 
meeting  of  the  democratic  members  of  his  committee.  Gen. 
Shields,  Judge  Douglass,  and  myself,  were  invited  to  be  pres- 
ent at  their  meeting.  I  was  desirous  of  having  the  measure  in- 
troduced as  a  democratic  measure,  and  for  this  reason  the  whigs 
of  the  committee  were  not  invited  to  be  present.  The  project 
was  stated  to  the  committee,  and  all  the  members  agreed  to  it 
but  one,  and  he  was  soon  argued  out  of  his  objections  by  Judge 
Douglass.  The  next  day  it  was  introduced  into  the  lower  house 
as  a  report  from  the  finance  committee.  This  circumstance  put 
Mr.  McClernand  in  the  position  of  being  its  principal  advocate ; 
and  it  was  soon  known  to  be  a  favorite  measure  of  the  new  ad- 
ministration. It  at  once  met  the  approbation  of  all  men  of 
sense  in  the  house ;  and  hi  saying  this,  I  say  only  the  truth  of 
those  four  gentlemen  who  opposed  it,  none  of  whom,  though  re- 
spectable in  other  matters,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  were  capa- 
ble of  entertaining  two  ideas  about  public  affairs  at  the  same 
time,  of  tracing  the  connection  between  them,  or  of  conceiving 
the  bare  idea  of  a  comprehensive  system  of  State  policy. 

The  opposition  to  the  bill  as  yet  was  confined  to  the  outdoor 


304  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

hangers-on  about  the  seat  of  government,  many  of  whom  ex- 
pected, if  the  banks  were  repealed  and  put  into  forcible  liquida- 
tion, to  get  some  profitable  jobs  as  commissioners  and  attor- 
neys. Lyman  Trumbull,  Secretary  of  State,  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  this  opposition.  In  taking  this  ground,  Mr.  Trumbull 
was  probably  less  influenced  by  a  hope  of  pecuniary  advantage 
to  himself,  than  by  a  desire  to  serve  his  friends,  to  be  consider- 
ed a  thorough-going  party  man,  and  by  a  hatred  of  McCler- 
nand  and  Shields,  who  both  favored  the  measure.  His  quarrel 
with  McClernand  sprung  out  of  his  appointment  to  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  State  two  years  before. 

McClernand  was  a  member  of  the  legislature  in  1840,  but 
not  being  an  applicant  then,  Judge  Douglass  was  appointed  at 
the  beginning  of  the  session  without  opposition.  But  when 
Douglass  was  elected  a  judge  of  the  supreme  court  towards  the 
end  of  the  session,  McClernand  incited  his  friends  to  get  up  in 
his  favor  a  strong  recommendation  from  the  members  of  the 
legislature  for  the  vacant  office.  It  had  been  much  the  practice 
heretofore  for  the  legislature  to  dictate  to  the  governor  by  rec- 
ommendation. A  popular  man  in  former  times  would  be  an 
applicant  for  an  office.  He  got  his  friends  in  the  legislature  to 
sign  a  request  that  he  might  have  the  appointment.  The  gover- 
nor was  feeble,  and  clothed  with  but  little  authority.  The  legis- 
lature came  fresh  from  the  people,  and  were  clothed  with  almost 
the  entire  power  of  government.  They  were  soon  to  return 
again  to  their  constituents.  If  the  governor  refused  to  oblige 
them,  they  calumniated  and  denounced  him,  and  endeavored  to 
render  him  odious  to  the  people  after  their  return  home.  Be- 
sides this,  the  legislature  possessed  most  of  the  appointing  pow- 
er themselves.  The  governor  might  want  some  office  himself 
ha  future,  and  he  always  had  a  number  of  friends  for  whose 
sake  he  desired  an  influence  with  the  assembly.  In  this  view, 
the  governor,  for  the  time  being,  himself  was  usually  obliged  to 
be  a  kind  of  lobby  member ;  and  not  unfrequently  might  be 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  305 

classed  as  one  of  the  hangers-on  about  the  seat  of  government, 
seeking  to  control  the  legislature  in  the  bestowment  of  offices. 
He  dreaded  the  anger  of  the  members,  and  would  do  everything 
to  please  them,  or  to  avoid  their  displeasure.  In  this  mode  the 
independence  of  the  executive  government  was  subverted,  the  two 
houses  were  tampered  with  and  controlled,  and  the  two  branches 
of  government,  intended  to  be  kept  separate  in  their  action,  were 
blended  and  almost  amalgamated  into  one.  This  will  be  look- 
ed upon  as  an  evil.  But  as  there  are  three  distinct  wills  to  be 
consulted  in  all  matters  of  legislation,  it  is  perhaps,  in  the  pres- 
ent state  of  imperfection  of  human  nature,  necessary  that  they 
should  thus  mutually  operate  on  each  other,  in  order  to  produce 
that  harmony  of  action  which  leads  to  concurrence  in  one  direc- 
tion. It  is  true  that  the  executive  and  legislative  powers  are  in- 
tended to  be  kept  separate,  and  although  they  are  in  point  of 
fact  frequently  blended  into  one,  yet,  on  great  occasions,  when 
the  public  liberties  might  be  endangered  by  their  union,  the 
power  of  resistance  is  still  capable  of  being  exerted  by  each  de- 
partment. 

But  to  go  back  to  the  quarrel  between  McClernand  and 
Trumbull.  Governor  Carlin  had  already  allowed  the  members 
of  the  legislature  and  his  political  friends  to  dictate  to  him  the 
appointment  of  McClernand  on  a  former  occasion.  He  had 
lately  yielded  to  similar  dictation  in  the  appointment  of  Doug- 
lass, in  opposition  to  his  own  wishes ;  for  he  had  previously 
promised  the  office  to  Isaac  N.  Morris,  of  Quincy.  He  had  in 
fact  invited  Morris  to  Springfield  to  receive  the  appointment. 
But  on  the  arrival  of  the  governor  at  the  seat  of  government, 
he  was  saluted  with  a  legislative  recommendation  in  favor  of 
Douglass,  which  at  that  time,  the  beginning  of  the  session,  he 
was  unwilling  to  refuse.  Douglass  was  appointed;  and  the 
governor  in  his  turn  subsequently  used  his  influence  with  the 
legislature  to  get  Morris  elected  to  the  office  of  president  of  the 
board  of  canal  commissioners. 


306  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

But  this  contest  between  McClernand  and  Trumbull  took 
place  at  the  close  of  the  session,  when  the  governor  had  nothing 
more  to  hope  or  to  fear  from  that  legislature,  or  any  other 
during  the  balance  of  his  term.  This  made  him  more  inde- 
pendent, and  he  now  resolved  to  resist  legislative  dictation. 

Trumbull  was  nominated  to  the  Senate ;  and  McClernand  and 
Shields  as  immediately  went  to  work  in  that  body  to  procure 
the  rejection  of  his  appointment.  They  came  within  a  vote  or 
two  of  defeating  his  nomination. 

Ever  since  this  there  had  been  no  good  feeling  between  Mc- 
Clernand and  Trumbull.  As  soon  as  McClernand  took  his 
position  on  the  bank  question,  Trumbull  arrayed  himself  in  op- 
position. He  pretended  that  McClernand's  measure  was  not 
sufficiently  democratic ;  in  fact,  that  nothing  could  be  democratic 
in  relation  to  the  banks,  but  to  tear  them  up  and  destroy  them 
root  and  branch ;  and  he  hoped  to  fasten  upon  McClernand  the 
imputation  of  being  a  "  milk  and  water  democrat,"  and  thus 
lower  him  in  the  estimation  of  the  party.  At  the  instance  of 
Ebenezer  Peck,  the  clerk  of  the  supreme  court,  and  some  others, 
he  put  up  a  notice  that  he  would  address  the  lobby  on  the  sub- 
ject in  the  evening  after  the  legislature  had  adjourned.  Most 
of  the  members  attended  to  hear  his  discourse.  In  this  speech 
he  put  forth  many  of  the  common  arguments  against  banks ; 
and  most  of.the  objections  heretofore  stated  to  the  compromise 
bill. 

The  next  day  McClernand,  who  possessed  a  kind  of  bold 
and  denunciatory  eloquence,  came  down  upon  Trumbull  and 
his  confederates  in  a  speech  in  the  House  ;  which  for  argument, 
eloquence,  and  statesmanship,  was  far  superior  to  Trumbull's. 
This  speech  silenced  all  opposition  thereafter  to  the  bill  in  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

The  out-door  opposition  after  this,  foreseeing  a  signal  defeat 
in  the  House,  turned  their  attention  to  the  Senate.  This  body 
was  composed  of  fewer  members,  and  it  was  hoped  would  be 


HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS.  807 

more  easily  managed  than  a  more  numerous  assembly  like  the 
lower  House.  One  of  the  Senators  was  put  at  the  head  of  it, 
who  was  a  man  of  but  a  poor  education  and  narrow  capacity, 
and  had  adopted  the  profession  of  the  law.  His  first  schooling 
in  the  practice  was  as  a  justice  of  the  peace,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  learned  more  of  the  captious  pettifogging  arts  of  his 
profession  than  of  the  science  of  jurisprudence.  He  was  after- 
wards elected  to  the  legislature,  and  here  he. supported  the  rail- 
road system.  He  had  been  one  of  the  most  zealous  supporters 
of  that  disastrous  measure ;  but  he  was  yet  impudently  confi- 
dent in  the  infallibility  of  his  own  judgment,  just  as  though  he 
had  never  so  greatly  erred.  He  was  next  elected  by  the  legis- 
lature to  be  a  judge  of  the  circuit  court.  As  a  judge,  he  knew 
just  enough  of  law,  and  had  practiced  enough  in  its  quibbles,  to 
obliterate  from  his  heart  the  instinct  in  favor  of  natural  justice, 
without  supplying  its  place  by  the  lights  of  science.  In  this 
capacity  he  seemed  to  think  that  the  great  secret  of  judicature 
consisted  in  giving  full  effect  to  quibbles  and  technical  objec- 
tions, so  much  so  that  it  was  a  rare  thing  for  substantial  justice 
to  be  done  in  any  case  before  him.  An  unlearned  lawyer  or 
judge  with  a  cramped  understanding  like  his,  is  almost  sure  to 
take  up  the  idea  that  the  true  way  to  win  a  reputation  is  to 
show  a  superior  dexterity  in  finding  and  giving  effect  to  learned 
quibbles  and  trifles,  to  the  total  neglect  of  the  great  principles 
of  law  and  justice.  He  forgets  that  courts  were  established  to 
do  right  between  man  and  man,  and  only  remembers  the  forms 
of  proceeding.  These  forms  he  looks  upon  as  something  sacred 
and  holy,  and  are  not  to  be  jostled  aside  by  the  demands  of  nat- 
ural right.  A  more  enlightened  judge  places  his  glory  in 
showing  that  he  is  not  ignorant  of  the  little  sort  of  learning,  and 
in  finding  good  legal  reasons  for  making  it  all  bend  to  the  great 
object  of  all  judicature,  the  administration  of  substantial  justice. 
This  man  was  also  one  of  those  small-minded  men,  who,  as 
speakers,  are  always  equal  on  every  subject.  If  he  spoke  upon 


308  mSTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

a  small  subject,  he  would  raise  it  and  magnify  it ;  if  upon  a 
large  one,  he  would  reduce  it  and  belittle  it  to  suit  his  capacity. 
If  he  spoke  upon  a  great  subject,  involving  the  discussion  of 
great  principles,  and  the  expression  of  great  ideas,  his  mode 
would  make  them  look  small.  Any  one  seeing  such  things 
through  the  medium  of  one  of  his  speeches,  would  think  he  saw 
a  large  object  through  a  telescope  with  the  little  end  foremost, 
which  makes  objects  that  are  large  and  near  at  hand  appear  to 
be  very  far  off  and  very  little. 

He  was  elected  to  the  senate  in  1840.  At  that  session  he 
voted  under  executive  influence  for  the  bank  suspension  of  that 
year,  and  for  the  State  Bank  to  have  the  privilege  of  issuing  one- 
dollar-  notes.  In  1841  he  was  a  candidate  for  Congress,  and 
found  himself  very  unpopular  with  the  democratic  party  in  con- 
sequence of  this  vote,  so  that  he  was  beaten  in  his  election  by 
a  very  large  majority.  In  1842  he  undertook  to  recover  the 
confidence  of  the  party  by  more  than  ordinary  violence  against 
banks.  He  must  have  persuaded  himself  that  as  he  had  lost 
the  confidence  of  his  friends  by  too  much  servility  to  banks,  the 
way  to  recover  it,  and  wipe  out  the  memory  of  former  delin- 
quency, was  to  err  as  far  on  the  other  side  by  a  senseless  oppo- 
sition, now  that  they  had  lost  their  power ;  and  the  interests  of 
the  State  required  that  they  should  be  dealt  with  upon  principles 
of  sound  wisdom.  His  effort,  however,  did  not  succeed,  for  he 
has  never  had  the  confidence  of  any  party  since. 

In  the  Senate,  the  whole  out-door  opposition  was  let  loose 
upon  the  bill.  Trumbull  took  his  stand  in  the  lobby,  and  sent 
in  amendments  of  every  sort  to  be  proposed  by  Cram  of  Wash- 
ington, Catlin  of  St.  Clair,  and  others.  The  mode  of  attack  was 
to  load  it  down  with  obnoxious  amendments,  so  as  to  make  it 
odious  to  its  authors ;  and  Trumbull  openly  boasted  that  the 
bill  would  be  so  altered  and  amended  in  the  Senate,  that  its 
framers  hi  the  house  would  not  know  their  own  bantling  when 
it  came  back  to  them.  From  this  moment  I  determined  to  re- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  309 

move  Trumbull  from  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State.  From 
the  nature  of  his  office,  he  ought  to  have  been  my  confidential 
helper  and  adviser ;  and  when  he  found  that  my  course  was 
against  his  principles,  if  really  it  was  against  them,  he  ought  to 
have  resigned.  If  he  did  not  do  so,  I  was  bound,  in  duty  to  my- 
self and  to  the  public,  to  remove  him  and  get  some  other  per- 
son who  would  be  willing  to  render  this  assistance.  This  was 
the  principle  established  by  the  democratic  party  in  the  memo- 
rable contest  between  Field  and  McClernand. 

The  obnoxious  amendments  were  rejected,  and  the  bill  passed 
by  a  large  majority,  and  was  approved  by  the  council  of  revis- 
ion. Judge  Douglass,  notwithstanding  he  had  advised  the  meas- 
ure before  the  finance  committee,  voted  against  it  hi  the  coun- 
cil. A  bill  somewhat  similar  passed  in  relation  to  the  Shawnee- 
town  Bank.  By  these  two  bills  the  domestic  treasury  of  the 
State  was  at  once  relieved,  and  another  debt  of  $2,306,000  was 
extinguished  immediately. 

The  legislature  at  this  session  also  passed  laws  for  the  sale 
of  State  lands  and  property  ;  for  the  reception  of  the  distribu- 
tive share  of  the  State  in  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  pub- 
lic lands  ;  for  the  redemption  of  interest  bonds  hypothecated  to 
Macalister  and  Stebbins  ;  and  for  a  loan  of  $1,600,000  to  com- 
plete the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal.  By  these  various  laws 
provision  was  made  for  the  reduction  of  the  State  debt  to  the 
amount  of  eight  or  nine  millions  of  dollars.  This  was  the  best 
that  could  be  done,  and  it  is  wonderful,  under  the  circumstances, 
that  so  much  could  be  accomplished. 

From  this  moment  the  affairs  of  the  State  began  to  brighten 
'  and  improve.  Auditors'  warrants  rose  to  85  and  90  per  cent. 
State  bonds  rose  from  14  to  20,  30,  and  40  per  cent.  The 
banks  began  to  pay  out  their  specie,  and  within  three  months 
time  the  currency  was  restored,  confidence  was  increased  in  the 
prospects  of  the  State,  and  the  tide  of  emigration  was  once 
more  directed  to  Illinois. 


310  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

These  were  all  measures  of  intrinsic  wisdom ;  but  it  is  amus- 
ing to  read  over  the  high-sounding  titles  of  the  laws  which  were 
passed  to  carry  them  into  effect,  as  if  it  were  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  humbug  the  people  into  the  support  of  the  wisest  meas- 
ures of  public  policy.  Accordingly,  we  read  in  the  statutes  of 
"  An  act  to  diminish  the  State  debt,  and  to  put  the  State  Bank 
into  liquidation."  "  An  act  to  diminish  the  State  debt  one  mil- 
lion of  dollars,  and  to  put  the  Bank  of  Illinois  into  liquidation." 
"  An  act  to  provide  for  the  completion  of  the  Illinois  and  Mich- 
igan canal,  and  for  the  payment  of  the  canal  debt."  "  An  act 
to  provide  for  the  sale  of  the  public  property,  and  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  public  debt ;"  and  "  An  act  to  provide  for  a  settle- 
ment with  Macallister  and  Stebbins,  and  further  to  diminish 
the  State  debt."  These  high-sounding  titles  were  given  to 
these  several  laws  with  a  view  to  set  off  the  strong  and  anxious 
desire  of  the  people  for  the  reduction  of  the  State  debt,  against 
the  popular  prejudice  against  the  defunct  banks,  which  it  was 
foreseen  would  be  invoked  to  humbug  the  people  into  an  oppo- 
sition to  these  acts,  and  those  who  supported  them,  and  to  build 
up  the  reckless  men  who  had  opposed  them.  It  was  probably 
a  fair  game  of  humbug  against  humbug. 

The  legislature  at  this  session  passed  a  very  important  law 
on  the  subject  of  the  collection  of  private  debts.  During  the 
inflation  of  the  bank  currency  and  the  credit  system,  so  called, 
every  one  had  got  into  debt.  The  merchants  had  purchased  on 
a  credit,  and  they  had  again  sold  on  a  credit.  This  system 
brought  a  great  many  goods  into  the  State ;  more  than  the  peo- 
ple, according  to  their  means,  ought  to  have  consumed.  But 
the  merchants  were  anxious  to  sell,  and  freely  credited  the  peo- 
ple up  to  about  the  value  of  their  property.  The  destruction 
of  the  currency  made  payment  impossible.  Such  a  calamity 
had  fallen  on  the  people  only  about  twenty  years  before ;  and 
if  a  capacity  had  existed  of  being  profited  by  experience,  it 
ought  now  to  have  been  avoided.  But  it  is  lamentably  true 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  311 

that  communities  in  the  aggregate  scarcely  ever  profit  by  the 
lessons  of  experience.  The  same  evils  and  calamities,  and  from 
the  same  causes,  occur  again  and  again,  and  find  the  people  as 
little  expecting  them,  every  time  they  are  repeated,  as  they 
were  before ;  and  they  are  every  time  just  as  blind  about  the 
remedy. 

The  people  in  1820  had  brought  the  same  evils  on  themselves. 
They  then  sought  a  remedy  in  a  State  bank  with  stays  of  exe- 
cution. The  bank  policy  was  now  too  odious  to  be  thought  of; 
but  the  legislature  this  time  adopted  a  novel  expedient,  which 
had  not  been  thought  of  by  any  former  legislature  in  the  world. 
They  passed  a  law  providing  that  when  an  execution  was  levied 
upon  property,  the  property  should  be  appraised  by  three  house- 
holders under  oath,  to  its  value  in  "  ordinary  times ;"  and  no 
such  property  could  be  sold  for  less  than  two-thirds  of  its  value 
thus  ascertained.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
afterwards  pronounced  this  law  to  be  unconstitutional  and  void. 
In  the  meantime  it  had  some  good  effects.  A  vast  number  of 
debts  were  paid  by  arrangements  and  trades  of  property,  vol- 
untarily made  between  debtor  and  creditor.  It  destroyed  and 
checked  up  unwarrantable  credit,  by  alarming  the  creditor  part 
of  the  community,  and  has  made  them  more  careful  in  extend- 
ing credit  in  future. 

It  has  appeared  to  me  that  there  are  two  modes  in  which  a 
sound  credit  may  be  established.  One  mode  may  be  to  let 
loose  the  full  vigor  and  severity  of  law,  as  in  England,  upon  the 
debtor,  and  thus  make  mankind  afraid  to  go  in  debt  beyond 
their  ability  to  pay  with  ease.  The  other  may  be  to  take  away 
all  efficient  remedies  from  the  creditor  to  recover  his  debt,  and 
make  him  rely  upon  the  honor  and  integrity  of  his  debtor  for 
payment.  In  this  mode  no  one  would  get  credit  on  account  of 
being  rich.  Credit  would  be  no  longer  given  to  the  mere  pos- 
session of  property.  Because  such  an  one  might  be  a  rogue 
and  deny  his  debt ;  but  if  honest,  he  would  never  contract  for 


312  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

more  than  he  was  able  to  pay ;  and  he  would  make  extraor- 
dinary exertions  to  meet  his  engagements.  In  this  mode  the 
advantages  of  credit  would  be  a  reward  for  integrity  and 
punctuality. 

The  system  for  the  collection  of  debts  by  law  in  Illinois,  has 
never  been  one  thing  or  the  other.  A  kind  of  inefficient  rem- 
edy has  been  held  out  to  the  creditor,  which  might  succeed  in 
making  a  debt  from  an  honest  man,  but  never  from  a  rogue. 
The  ease  with  which  it  could  be  evaded,  put  the  debtor  part  of 
the  community  under  strong  temptation  to  dishonesty.  If  a 
creditor,  no  longer  to  be  put  off  by  fair  promises,  sued  for  his 
debt  at  law,  the  debtor  leaves  him  to  his  remedy  thus  chosen. 
He  satisfies  his  conscience  by  a  train  of  reasoning  of  this  sort : 
"  If  I  had  not  been  sued  I  would  have  paid  as  soon  as  I  possibly 
could.  My  creditor  is  not  disposed  to  rely  on  my  honor,  he 
has  sued  me  at  law,  and  thereby  chosen  mere  legal  means  to 
recover  his  debt.  He  does  not  rely  upon  me  any  longer.  Now 
^let  him  get  his  money  as  soon  as  the  law  will  give  it  to  him.  I 
feel  absolved  in  conscience  from  making  any  further  efforts  to 
pay,  and  will  be  justified  in  throwing  all  the  obstacles  in  his 
way  which  the  forms  and  delays  of  the  law  can  furnish."  He 
immediately  goes  to  work  to  continue  the  cause  from  term  to 
term,  to  appeal  the  judgment,  when  obtained,  from  court  to 
court ;  and,  as  a  last  resort,  he  has  a  favorite  mode  of  defeating 
his  creditor  in  legal  proceedings,  as  it  is  generally  called,  by 
beating  him  on  the  execution.  This  mode  of  defence  supposes 
the  debtor  to  make  fraudulent  sales  of  his  property,  or  to  run 
it  out  of  the  country.  All  such  delusive  remedies  ought  to  be 
abolished  immediately.  It  were  better  to  have  none.  They 
can  only  serve  to  make  rogues  and  demoralize  the  people. 


CHAPTER   X. 

• 

Mormons— New  warrant  for  the  arrest  of  Joe  Smith— Trial  before  Judge  Pope— Intrigues 
<  f  the  whigs—  The  Mormons  determine  to  vote  for  whig  candidates  for  Congress — 
Cyrus  Walker— Joseph  P.  Hoge— Dr  Bennett— Prejudices  against  the  Mormons — 
New  demand  for  the  arrest  of  Joe  Smith— Arrest  and  discharge  by  the  municipal 
court— Walker's  speech— Walker's  and  Hoge's  opinion— Mormons  always  prefer 
bad  advice— Demand  for  a  call  of  the  militia— Reasons  tor  not  calling  them— In- 
trigues of  the  democrats— Backinstos— Hiram  Smith— William  Law— Revelation  in 
favor  of  Hoge — Joe  Smith's  speech — Hoge  elected — Indignation  of  the  whigs — De- 
termination to  expel  the  Mormons— Stephen  A.  Douglass— City  ordinances— Inso- 
lence of  the  Mormons— Joe  Smith  a  candidate  for  President— Conceives  the  idea  of 
making  himself  a  Prince — Danite  band — Spiritual  wives — Attempt  on  William 
Law's  wife— Tyranny  of  Joe  Smith— Opposition  to  him— "Nauvoo  Expositor" — Trial 
of  the  press  as  a  nuisance— Its  destruction — Secession  of  the  refractory  Mormons — 
Warrant  for  Joe  Smith  and  common  council — Their  arrest  and  discharge  by  the  mu- 
nicipal cobrt— Committee  of  anti-Mormons— Journey  to  Carthage— Militia  assembled 
— Complaints  against  the  Mormons— Cause  of  popular  fury — False  reports  and 
camp  news — Pledge  of  the  troops  to  protect  the  prisoners — Martial  law — Conduct  of  a 
constable  and  civil  posse— Council  of  officers— The  great  flood  of  1844— Surrender  of 
Joe  Smith  and  the  common  council— Warrant  for  treason— Commitment  of  Joe  and 
Hiram  Smith — Preparations  to  march  into  Nauvoo — Council  of  officers — Militia  dis- 
banded— Journey  to  Nauvoo — Guard  left  for  the  protection  of  the  prisoners — Fur- 
ther precautions— The  leading  anti-Mormons  by  false  reports  undermine  the  Gov- 
ernor's influence— Governor's  speech  in  Nauvoo — Vote  of  the  Mormons— News  of 
the  death  of  the  Smiths — Preparation  for  defence  of  the  country — Mischievous  in- 
fluence of  the  press. 

WE  turn  again  to  the  history  of  the  State  as  connected  with 
the  Mormons.  This  people  had  now  become  about  16,000 
strong  in  Hancock  county,  and  several  thousands  more  were 
scattered  about  in  other  counties.  As  I  have  said  before,  Gov- 
ernor Carlin  in  1842,  had  issued  his  warrant  for  the  arrest  of 
Joe  Smith  their  prophet,  as  a  fugitive  from  justice  in  Missouri. 
This  warrant  had  never  been  executed,  and  was  still  outstand- 
ing when  I  came  into  office.  The  Mormons  were  desirous  of 

14 


314  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

having  the  cause  of  arrest  legally  tested  in  the  federal  court. 
Upon  their  application  a  duplicate  warrant  was  issued  in  the 
winter  of  1842-'3,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  sheriff  of 
Sangamon  county.  Upon  this  Joe  Smith  came  to  Springfield 
and  surrendered  himself  a  prisoner.  A  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
was  obtained  from  Judge  Pope  of  the  federal  court,  and  Smith 
was  discharged. 

Upon  this  proceeding  the  whigs  founded  a  hope  of  obtaining 
the  future  support  of  the  Mormons.  The  democratic  officers  in 
Missouri  and  Illinois  were  instrumental  in  procuring  his  arrest. 
He  was  discharged  this  time  by  a  whig  judge ;  and  his  cause 
had  been  managed  by  whig  lawyers.  As  in  the  case  decided 
by  Judge  Douglass,  Smith  was  too  ignorant  of  law  to  know 
whether  he  owed  his  discharge  to  the  law,  or  to  the  favor  of 
the  court  and  the  whig  party.  Such  was  the  ignorance  and 
stupidity  of  the  Mormons  generally,  that  they  deemed  anything 
to  be  law  which  they  judged  to  be  expedient.  All  action  of  the 
government  which  bore  hard  on  them,  however  legal,  they 
looked  upon  as  wantonly  oppressive ;  and  when  the  law  was  ad- 
ministered in  their  favor,  they  attributed  it  to  partiality  and 
kindness.  If  the  stern  duty  of  a  public  officer  required  him  to 
bear  hard  on  them,  they  attributed  it  to  malice.  In  this  man- 
ner the  Mormons  this  time  were  made  to  believe  that  they 
were  under  great  obligations  to  the  whigs  for  the  discharge  of 
their  prophet  from  what  they  believed  to  be  the  persecutions 
of  the  democrats ;  and  they  resolved  to  yield  their  support  to 
the  whig  party  in  the  next  election. 

An  election  for  Congress  in  the  Mormon  district  was  to  come 
off  in  August,  1843.  Cyrus  Walker  was  the  candidate  on  the 
part  of  the  whigs,  and  Joseph  P.  Hoge  on  the  part  of  the  demo- 
crats ;  both  of  them  distinguished  lawyers.  The  Mormons 
very  early  decided  to  support  Mr.  Walker,  -the  whig.  But 
owing  to  causes  which  I  will  relate,  they  were  induced  to  change 
their  resolution ;  and  this  was  the  cause  in  a  great  measure  of 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  315 

that  wonderful  excitement  which  subsequently  prevailed  against 
that  people. 

Dr.  John  C.  Bennett,  heretofore  mentioned  as  an  influential 
favorite  of  the  Mormon  leaders,  had  been  expelled  from  the 
Church  in  1842.  By  publications  and  lectures  delivered  in  va- 
rious parts  of  the  United  States,  he  undertook  to  expose  the 
doctrines,  designs,  and  government  of  the  Mormons,  and  to  do 
them  all  the  injury  in  his  power.  A  part  of  his  plan  was  to 
get  up  a  new  indictment  against  Joe  Smith  and  Orrin  P.  Rock- 
well for  an  attempt  to  murder  Gov.  Boggs  in  Missouri.  An  in- 
dictment was  found  in  Missouri  against  Smith  and  Rockwell  on 
the  5th  of  June,  1843.  On  the  7th,  a  messenger  from  Missou- 
ri presented  himself  to  me  with  a  copy  of  the  indictment,  and 
a  new  demand  from  the  governor  of  Missouri.  A  new  warrant, 
in  pursuance  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  was  issu- 
ed, and  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  constable  in  Hancock. 

This  constable  and  the  Missouri  agent  hastened  to  Nauvoo  to 
make  the  arrest,  where  they  ascertained  that  Joe  Smith  was  on 
a  visit  to  Rock  river.  They  pursued  him  thither,  and  succeed- 
ed in  arresting  him  in  Palestine  Grove,  in  the  county  of  Lee. 
The  constable  immediately  delivered  his  prisoner  to  the  Mis- 
souri agent,  and  returned  his  warrant  as  having  been  executed. 
The  agent  started  with  his  prisoner  in  the  direction  of  Missouri, 
but  on  the  road  was  met  by  a  number  of  armed  Mormons,  who 
captured  the  whole  party,  and  conducted  them  in  the  direction 
of  Nauvoo.  Further  on  they  were  met  by  hundreds  of  the 
Mormons,  coming  to  the  rescue  of  their  prophet,  who  conduct- 
ed him  in  grand  triumph  to  his  own  city.  Cyrus  Walker,  the 
whig  candidate  for  Congress,  was  sent  for  to  defend  him  as  a 
lawyer ;  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  sued  out  of  the  municipal 
court ;  Mr.  Walker  appeared  as  his  counsel,  and  made  a  won- 
derful exertion,  in  a  speech  of  three  hours  long,  to  prove  to  the 
municipal  court,  composed  of  Joe  Smith's  tools  and  particular 
friends,  that  they  had  the  jurisdiction  to  issue  and  act  on  the 


316  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

writ  under  the  ordinance  of  their  city.  Mr.  Hoge  also,  the 
democratic  candidate,  had  gone  to  Nauvoo  seeking  the  votes  of 
the  Mormons.  He  and  Mr.  Walker  were  both  called  upon,  in 
a  public  assembly  of  the  Mormons,  to  express  their  opinion  as 
to  the  legality  of  this  ordinance  of  the  city  giving  to  the  muni- 
cipal court  power  to  issue  writs  of  habeas  corpus  in  all  cases  of 
imprisonment,  and  both  of  them  gave  their  solemn  opinion  in 
favor  of  the  power.  Thus  the  Mormons  were  deluded  and  de- 
ceived by  men  who  ought  to  have  known  and  did  know  better. 
It  was  a  common  thing  for  this  people  to  be  eternally  asking 
and  receiving  adviee.  If  judicious  and  legal  advice  were  given 
to  them,  they  rejected  it  with  scorn,  when  it  came  in  conflict 
with  their  favorite  projects  ;  for  which  reason  all  persons  de- 
signing to  use  them,  made  it  a  rule  to  find  out  what  they  were 
in  favor  of,  and  advise  them  accordingly.  In  this  mode  the 
Mormons  relied  for  advice,  for  the  most  part,  upon  the  most 
corrupt  of  mankind,  who  would  make  no  matter  of  conscience 
of  advising  them  to  their  destruction,  as  a  means  of  gaining 
their  favor.  This  has  always  been  a  difficulty  with  the  Mor- 
mons, and  grew  out  of  their  blind  fanaticism,  which  refused  to 
see  or  to  hear  anything  against  their  system,  but  more  out  of 
the  corruption  of  their  leaders,  whose  objects  being  generally 
roguish  and  rotten,  required  corrupt  and  rotten  advisers  to  keep 
them  in  countenance. 

The  municipal  court  discharged  Joe  Smith  from  his  arrest ; 
the  Missouri  agent  immediately  applied  to  me  for  a  militia 
force,  to  renew  it ;  and  Mr.  Walker  came  to  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment, on  the  part  of  the  Mormons,  to  resist  the  application. 
This  was  only  a  short  time  before  the  election.  I  was  indis- 
posed from  the  first  to  call  out  the  militia,  and  informed  Mr. 
Walker  that  my  best  opinion  then  was,  that  the  militia  would 
not  be  ordered  ;  but  as  many  important  questions  of  law  were 
involved  in  the  decision,  I  declined  then  to  pronounce  a  definite 
opinion. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  317 

The  truth  is,  that,  being  determined  from  the  first  not  to  be 
made  a  party  to  the  contest  between  Walker  and  Hoge,%and 
knowing  that  Walker  only  wanted  my  decision  to  carry  back 
to  the  Mormons,  as  a  means  of  his  success,  I  ought  to  have  with- 
held it  if  for  no  other  reason  but  this.  It  was  afterwards,  upon 
mature  consideration,  decided  not  to  call  out  the  militia,  be- 
cause the  writ  had  been  returned  as  having  been  fully  executed 
by  the  delivery  of  Joe  Smith  to  the  Missouri  agent ;  after  which 
it  was  entirely  a  question  between  Missouri  and  Smith,  with 
which  Illinois  had  nothing  to  do,  except  to  issue  a  new  warrant 
if  one  had  been  demanded.  The  governor,  in  doing  what  he 
had  done,  had  fulfilled  his  whole  duty  under  the  constitution  and 
the  laws.  And,  because  Smith  had  not  been  forcibly  rescued, 
but  had  been  discharged  under  color  of  law,  by  a  court  which 
had  exceeded  its  jurisdiction,  and  it  appeared  that  it  would  have 
been  a  dangerous  precedent  for  the  governor,  whenever  he  sup- 
posed that  the  courts  had  exceeded  their  powers,  to  call  out  the 
militia  to  reverse  and  correct  their  judgments.  Yet,  for  not  do- 
ing so,  I  was  subjected  to  much  unmerited  abuse. 

However,  the  democratic  managers  about  Nauvoo,  after  the 
usual  fashion  of  managing  the  Mormons  by  both  parties,  terri- 
fied them  if  they  voted  for  the  whig  candidate,  as  they  were 
yet  determined,  with  the  prospect  of  the  militia  being  sent 
against  them. 

Backinstos,  a  managing  democrat  of  Hancock  county,  was 
sent  as  a  messenger  to  Springfield  to  ascertain  positively  what 
the  governor  would  do  if  the  Mormons  voted  the  democratic 
ticket.  I  happened  to  be  absent  at  St.  Louis,  but  I  heard 
some  weeks  after  the  election,  that  Backinstos  went  home  pre- 
tending that  he  had  the  most  ample  assurances  of  favor  to  the 
Mormons,  so  long  as  they  voted  the  democratic  ticket.  And  I 
was  informed  by  the  man  himself,  a  prominent  democrat  of 
Springfield,  on  the  9th  day  of  October,  1846,  for  the  first  time, 
that  during  my  absence  he  had  given  a  positive  pledge,  in  my 


318  HISTOBT  OF  ILLINOIS. 

name,  to  Backinstos,  that  if  the  Mormons  voted  the  democratic 
ticket,  the  militia  should  not  be  sent  against  them.  This  pledge, 
however,  he  took  care  never  to  intimate  to  me  until  more  than 
three  years  afterwards.  Since  the  Mormons  have  become  so 
unpopular,  and  since  the  most  of  them  have  left  the  State,  so 
that  they  can  no  longer  be  a  support  to  any  one,  this  man,  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  hundreds  of  others  of  a  similar 
class,  has  joined  the  anti-Mormon  excitement,  and  has  been  a 
strong  advocate  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Mormons  and  all  who 
sought  to  do  them  but  simple  justice.  This  indicated  only  that 
the  power  in  Hancock  had  got  into  the  hands  of  the  anti-Mor- 
mons. The  mission  of  Backinstos  produced  a  total  change  in 
the  minds  of  the  Mormon  leaders.  They  now  resolved  to  drop 
their  friend  Walker  and  take  up  Hoge,  the  democratic  candi- 
date. Backinstos  returned  only  a  day  or  two  before  the  elec- 
tion, and  there  was  only  a  short  time  for  the  leaders  to  operate 
in.  A  great  meeting  was  called  of  several  thousand  Mormons 
on  Saturday  before  the  election.  Hiram  Smith,  patriarch  in 
the  Mormon  Church,  and  brother  to  the  prophet,  appeared  in 
this  great  assembly,  and  there  solemnly  announced  to  the  peo- 
ple, that  God  had  revealed  to  him  that  the  Mormons  must  sup- 
port Mr.  Hoge,  the  democratic  candidate.  William  Law,  an- 
other great  leader  of  the  Mormons,  next  appeared,  and  denied 
that  the  Lord  had  made  any  such  revelation.  He  stated  that, 
to  his  certain  knowledge,  the  prophet  Joseph  was  in  favor  of 
Mr.  Walker,  and  that  the  prophet  was  more  likely  to  know  the 
mind  of  the  Lord  on  the  subject  than  the  patriarch.  Hiram 
Smith  again  repeated  his  revelation  with  a  greater  tone  of  au- 
thority. But  the  people  remained  in  doubt  until  the  next  day, 
being  Sunday,  when  Joe  Smith  himself  appeared  before  the 
assembly.  He  there  stated  that  "  he  himself  was  in  favor  of 
Mr.  Walker,  and  intended  to  vote  for  him  ;  that  he  would  not, 
if  he  could,  influence  any  voter  in  giving  his  vote  ;  that  he  con- 
sidered it  a  mean  business  for  him  or  any  other  man  to  attempt 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  319 

to  dictate  to  the  people  who  they  should  support  in  elections ; 
that  he  had  heard  his  brother  Hiram  had  received  a  revelation 
from  the  Lord  on  the  subject ;  that  for  his  part  he  did  not  much 
believe  in  revelations  on  the  subject  of  elections ;  but  brother 
Hiram  was  a  man  of  truth ;  he  had  known'  brother  Hiram  inti- 
mately ever  since  he  was  a  boy,  and  he  had  never  known  him 
to  tell  a  lie.  If  brother  Hiram  said  he  had  received  such  a  rev- 
elation, he  had  no  doubt  it  was  a  fact.  When  the  Lord  speaks, 
let  all  the  earth  be  silent." 

This  decided  the  Mormon  vote.  The  next  day  Mr.  Hoge 
received  about  three  thousand  votes  in  Nauvoo,  and  was  elected 
to  Congress  by  six  or  eight  hundred  majority.  The  result  of 
the  election  struck  the  whigs  with  perfect  amazement.  Whilst 
they  fancied  themselves  secure  of  getting  the  Mormon  vote  for 
Mr.  Walker,  the  whig  newspapers  had  entirely  ceased  their 
accustomed  abuse  of  the  Mormons.  They  now  renewed  their 
crusade  against  them,  every  paper  was  loaded  with  accounts  of 
the  wickedness,  corruptions,  and  enormities  of  Nauvoo.  The 
whig  orators  groaned  with  complaints  and  denunciations  of  the 
democrats,  who  would  consent  to  receive  Mormon  support,  and 
the  democratic  officers  of  the  State  were  violently  charged  and 
assaulted  with  using  the  influence  of  their  offices  to  govern  the 
Mormons.  From  this  time  forth  the  whigs  generally,  and  a 
part  of  the  democrats,  determined  upon  driving  the  Mormons 
out  of  the  State ;  and  everything  connected  with  the  Mormons 
became  political,  and  was  considered  almost  entirely  with  refer- 
ence to  party.  To  this  circumstance  in  part,  is  to  be  attributed 
the  extreme  difficulty  ever  afterwards  of  doing  anything  effect- 
ually in  relation  to  the  Mormon  or  anti-Mormon  parties,  by 
the  executive  government. 

It  appears  that  the  Mormons  had  been  directed  by  their 
leaders  to  vote  the  whig  ticket  in  the  Quincy,  as  well  as  the 
Hancock  district.  In  the  Quincy  district,  Judge  Douglass  was 
the  democratic  candidate,  O.  H.  Browning  was  the  candidate  of 


320  HISTORY.  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  whigs.  The  leading  Mormons  at  Nauvoo  having  never 
determined  in  favor  of  the  democrats  until  a  day  or  two  before 
the  election,  there  was  not  sufficient  time,  or  it  was  neglected, 
to  send  orders  from  Nauvoo  into  the  Quincy  district,  to  effect 
a  change  there.  The  Mormons  in  that  district  voted  for  Brown- 
ing. Douglass  and  his  friends  being  afraid  that  I  might  be  in 
his  way  for  the  United  States  Senate,  in  1846,  seized  hold  of 
this  circumstance  to  affect  my  party  standing,  and  thereby  gave 
countenance  to  the  clamor  of  the  whigs,  secretly  whispering  it 
about  that  I  had  not  only  influenced  the  Mormons  to  vote  for 
Hoge,  but  for  Browning  also.  This  decided  many  of  the  dem- 
ocrats in  favor  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Mormons. 

No  further  demand  for  the  arrest  of  Joe  Smith  having  been 
made  by  Missouri,  he  became  emboldened  by  success.  The 
Mormons  became  more  arrogant  and  overbearing.  In  the 
winter  of  1843-'4,  the  common  council  passed  some  further 
ordinances  to  protect  their  leaders  from  arrest,  on  demand 
from  Missouri.  They  enacted  that  no  writ  issued  from  any 
other  place  than  Nauvoo,  for  the  arrest  of  any  person  in  it, 
should  be  executed  in  the  city,  without  an  approval  endorsed 
thereon  by  the  mayor ;  that  if  any  public  officer,  by  virtue  of 
any  foreign  writ,  should  attempt  to  make  an  arrest  in  the  city, 
without  such  approval  of  his  process,  he  should  be  subject  to 
imprisonment  for  life,  and  that  the  governor  of  the  State  should 
not  have  the  power  of  pardoning  the  offender  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  mayor.  When  these  ordinances  were  published, 
they  created  general  astonishment.  Many  people  began  to  be- 
lieve in  good  earnest  that  the  Mormons  were  about  to  set  up  a 
separate  government  for  themselves  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of 
the  State.  Owners  of  property  stolen  in  other  counties,  made 
pursuit  into  Nauvoo,  and  were  fined  by  the  Mormon  courts  for 
daring  to  seek  their  property  in  the  holy  city.  To  one  such  I 
granted  a  pardon.  Several  of  the  Mormons  had  been  convicted 
of  larceny,  and  they  never  failed  in  any  instance  to  procure 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  321 

petitions  signed  by  1,500  or  2,000  of  their  friends  for  their 
pardon.  But  that  which  made  it  more  certain  than  everything 
else,  that  the  Mormons  contemplated  a  separate  government, 
was  that  about  this  time  they  petitioned  Congress  to  establish 
a  territorial  government  for  them  in  Nauvoo ;  as  if  Congress 
had  any  power  to  establish  such  a  government,  or  any  other, 
within  the  bounds  of  a  State. 

To  crown  the  whole  folly  of  the  Mormans,  in  the  spring  of 
1844,  Joe  Smith  announced  himself  as  a  candidate  for  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  His  followers  were  confident  that 
he  would  be  elected.  Two  or  three  thousand  missionaries 
were  immediately  sent  out  to  preach  their  religion,  and  to 
electioneer  in  favor  of  their  prophet  for  the  presidency.  This 
folly  at  once  covered  that  people  with  ridicule  in  the  minds  of 
all  sensible  men,  and  brought  them  into  conflict  with  the  zealots 
and  bigots  of  all  political  parties ;  as  the  arrogance  and  extrav- 
agance of  their  religious  pretensions  had  already  aroused  the 
opposition  of  all  other  denominations  in  religion. 

It  seems,  from  the  best  information  which  could  be  got  from 
the  best  men  who  had  seceded  from  the  Mormon  church,  that 
Joe  Smith  about  this  time  conceived  the  idea  of  making  himself 
a  temporal  prince  as  well  as  a  spiritual  leader  of  his  people. 
He  instituted  a  new  and  select  order  of  the  priesthood,  the 
members  of  which  were  to  be  priests  and  kings  temporarily 
and  spiritually.  These  were  to  be  his  nobility,  who  were  to  be 
the  upholders  of  his  throne.  He  caused  himself  to  be  crowned 
and  anointed  king  and  priest,  far  above  the  rest ;  and  he  pre- 
scribed the  form  of  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  himself,  which  he 
administered  to  his  principal  followers.  To  uphold  his  preten- 
sions to  royalty,  he  deduced  his  descent  by  an  unbroken  chain 
from  Joseph  the  son  of  Jacob,  and  that  of  his  wife  from  some 
other  renowned  personage  of  Old  Testament  history.  The 
Mormons  openly  denounced  the  government  of  the  United 
States  as  utterly  corrupt,  and  as  being  about  to  pass  away,  and 

14* 


322  HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

to  be  replaced  by  the  government  of  God,  to  be  administered 
by  his  servant  Joseph.  It  is  now  at  this  day  certain  also,  that 
about  this  time  the  prophet  reinstituted  an  order  in  the  church, 
called  the  "  Danite  band."  These  were  to  be  a  body  of  police 
and  guards  about  the  person  of  their  sovereign,  who  were  sworn 
to  obey  his  orders  as  the  orders  of  God  himself.  About  this 
time  also  he  gave  a  new  touch  to  a  female  order  already  exist- 
ing in  the  church,  called  "  Spiritual  Wives."  A  doctrine  was 
now  revealed  that  no  woman  could  get  to  heaven  except  as  the 
wife  of  a  Mormon  elder.  The  elders  were  allowed  to  have  as 
many  of  these  wives  as  they  could  maintain ;  and  it  was  a  doc- 
trine of  the  church,  that  any  female  could  be  "  sealed  up  to 
eternal  life,"  by  uniting  herself  as  wife  or  concubine  to  the  elder 
of  her  choice.  This  doctrine  was  maintained  by  an  appeal  to 
the  Old  Testament  scriptures ;  and  by  the  example  of  Abra- 
ham and  Jacob,  of  David  and  Solomon,  the  favorites  of  God  in 
a  former  age  of  the  world. 

Soon  after  these  institutions  were  established,  Joe  Smith  be- 
gan to  play  the  tyrant  over  several  of  his  followers.  The  first 
act  of  this  sort  which  excited  attention,  was  an  attempt  to  take 
the  wife  of  William  Law,  one  of  his  most  talented  and  princi- 
pal disciples,  and  make  her  a  spiritual  wife.  By  means  of  his 
common  council,  without  the  authority  of  law,  he  established  a 
recorder's  office  in  Nauvoo,  in  which  alone  the  titles  of  proper- 
ty could  be  recorded.  In  the  same  manner  and  with  the  same 
want  of  legal  authority  he  established  an  office  for  issuing 
marriage  licenses  to  the  Mormons,  so  as  to  give  him  absolute 
control  of  the  marrying  propensities  of  his  people.  He  pro- 
claimed that  none  in  the  city  should  purchase  real  estate  to  sell 
again,  but  himself.  He  also  permitted  no  one  but  himself  to 
have  a  license  in  the  city  for  the  sale  of  spirituous  liquor ;  and 
in  many  other  ways  he  undertook  to  regulate  and  control  the 
business  of  the  Mormons. 

This  despotism  administered  by  a  corrupt  and  unprincipled 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  323 

man,  soon  became  intolerable.  William  Law,  one  of  the  most 
eloquent  preachers  of  the  Mormons,  who  appeared  to  me  to  be 
a  deluded  but  conscientious  and  candid  man,  Wilson  Law,  his 
brother,  major-general  of  the  legion,  and  four  or  five  other  Mor- 
mon leaders,  resolved  upon  a  rebellion  against  the  authority  of 
the  prophet.  They  designed  to  enlighten  their  brethren  and 
fellow-citizens  upon  the  new  institutions,  the  new  turn  given  to 
Mor monism,  and  the  practices  under  the  new  system,  by  procur- 
ing a  printing  press  and  establishing  a  newspaper  in  the  city,  to  be 
the  organ  of  their  complaints  and  views.  But  they  never  issued 
but  one  number ;  before  the  second  could  appear  the  press  was 
demolished  by  an  order  of  the  common  council,  and  the  con- 
spirators were  ejected  from  the  Mormon  church. 

The  Mormons  themselves  published  the  proceedings  of  the 
council  in  the  trial  and  destruction  of  the  heretical  press  ;  from 
which  it  does  not  appear  that  any  one  was  tried,  or  that  the 
editor  or  any  of  the  owners  of  the  property  had  notice  of  the 
trial,  or  were  permitted  to  defend  in  any  particular.  The  pro- 
ceeding was  an  ex  parte  proceeding,  partly  civil  and  partly 
ecclesiastical,  against  the  press  itself.  No  jury  was  called  or 
sworn,  nor  were  the  witnesses  required  to  give  their  evidence 
upon  oath.  The  councillors  stood  up  one  after  another,  and 
some  of  them  several  times,  and  related  what  they  pretended 
to  know.  In  this  mode  it  was  abundantly  proved  that  the 
owners  of  the  proscribed  press  were  sinners,  whoremasters, 
thieves,  swindlers,  counterfeiters  and  robbers;  the  evidence  of 
which  is  reported  in  the  trial  at  full  length.  It  was  altogether 
the  most  curious  and  irregular  trial  that  ever  was  recorded  in 
any  civilized  country ;  and  one  finds  difficulty  in  determining 
whether  the  proceedings  of  the  council  were  more  the  result  of 
insanity  or  depravity.  The  trial  resulted  in  the  conviction  of 
the  press  as  a  public  nuisance.  The  mayor  was  ordered  to  see 
it  abated  as  such,  and  if  necessary,  to  call  the  legion  to  his  as- 
sistance. The  mayor  issued  his  warrant  to  the  city  marshal, 


324  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

who,  aided  by  a  portion  of  the  legion,  proceeded  to  the  obnox- 
ious printing  office  and  destroyed  the  press  and  scattered  the 
types  and  other  materials. 

After  this  it  became  too  hot  for  the  seceding  and  rejected 
Mormons  to  remain  in  the  holy  city.  They  retired  to  Car- 
thage, the  county  seat  of  Hancock  county ;  and  took  out  war- 
rants for  the  mayor  and  members  of  the  common  council  and 
others  engaged  in  the  outrage,  for  a  riot.  Some  of  these  were 
arrested,  but  were  immediately  taken  before  the  municipal 
court  of  the  city  on  habeas  corpus,  and  discharged  from  custody. 
The  residue  of  this  history  of  the  Mormons,  up  to  the  time  of 
the  death  of  the  Smiths,  will  be  taken,  with  such  corrections  as 
time  has  shown  to  be  necessary,  from  my  report  to  the  legisla- 
ture, made  on  the  23d  of  December,  1844. 

On  the  seventeenth  day  of  June  following,  a  committee  of  a 
meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Carthage  presented  themselves  to  me, 
with  a  request  that  the  militia  might  be  ordered  out  to  assist  in 
executing  process  in  the  city  of  Nauvoo.  I  determined  to  visit 
in  person  that  section  of  country,  and  examine  for  myself  the 
truth  and  nature  of  their  complaints.  No  order  for  the  militia 
was  made ;  and  I  arrived  at  Carthage  on  the  morning  of  the 
twenty-first  day  of  the  same  month. 

Upon  my  arrival,  I  found  an  armed  force  assembled  and 
hourly  increasing  under  the  summons  and  direction  of  the  con- 
stables of  the  county,  to  serve  as  a  posse  comitatus  to  assist  in 
the  execution  of  process.  The  general  of  the  brigade  had 
also  called  for  the  militia,  en  masse,  of  the  counties  of  Mc- 
Donough  and  Schuyler,  for  a  similar  purpose.  Another  as- 
semblage to  a  considerable  number  had  been  made  at  Warsaw, 
under  military  command  of  Col.  Levi  Williams. 

The  first  thing  which  I  did  on  my  arrival  was  to  place  all  the 
militia  then  assembled,  and  which  were  expected  to  assemble, 
under  military  command  of  their  proper  officers. 

I  next  despatched  a  messenger  to  Nauvoo,  informing  the 


HISTORY   OF  ILLINOIS.  325 

mayor  and  common  council  of  the  nature  of  the  complaint 
made  against  them ;  and  requested  that  persons  might  be  sent 
to  me  to  lay  their  side  of  the  question  before  me.  A  commit- 
tee was  accordingly  sent,  who  made  such  acknowledgments  that 
I  had  no  difficulty  in  concluding  what  were  the  facts. 

It  appeared  clearly  both  from  the  complaints  of  the  citizens 
and  the  acknowledgments  of  the  Mormon  committee  that  the 
whole  proceedings  of  the  mayor,  the  common  council,  and  the 
municipal  court,  were  irregular  and  illegal,  and  not  to  be  en- 
dured in  a  free  country ;  though  perhaps  some  apology  might 
be  made  for  the  court,  as  it  had  been  repeatedly  assured  by 
some  of  the  best  lawyers  in  the  State  who  had  been  candidates 
for  office  before  that  people,  that  it  had  full  and  competent 
power  to  issue  writs  of  habeas  corpus  in  all  cases  whatever. 
The  common  council  violated  the  law  in  assuming  the  exercise 
of  judicial  power ;  in  proceeding  ex  parte  without  notice  to  the 
owners  of  the  property  ;  in  proceeding  against  the  property  in 
rem  ;  in  not  calling  a  jury  ;  in  not  swearing  all  the  witnesses ; 
in  not  giving  the  owners  of  the  property,  accused  of  being  a 
nuisance,  in  consequence  of  being  libelous,  an  opportunity  of 
giving  the  truth  in  evidence ;  and  in  fact,  by  not  proceeding  by 
civil  suit  or  indictment,  as  in  other  cases  of  libel.  The  mayor 
violated  the  law  in  ordering  this  erroneous  and  absurd  judg- 
ment of  the  common  council  to  be  executed.  And  the  munici- 
pal court  erred  in  discharging  them  from  arrest. 

As  this  proceeding  touched  the  liberty  of  the  press,  which  is 
justly  dear  to  any  republican  people,  it  was  well  calculated  to 
raise  a  great  flame  of  excitement.  And  it  may  well  b~e  ques- 
tioned whether  years  of  misrepresentation  by  the  most  profli- 
gate newspaper  could  have  engendered  such  a  feeling  as  was 
produced  by  the  destruction  of  this  one  press.  It  is  apparent 
that  the  Mormon  leaders  but  little  understood,  and  regarded 
less  the  true  principles  of  civil  liberty.  A  free  press  well  con- 
ducted is  a  great  blessing  to  a  free  people ;  a  profligate  one  is 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

likely  soon  to  deprive  itself  of  all  credit  and  influence  by  the 
multitude  of  falsehoods  put  forth  by  it.  But  let  this  be  as  it 
may,  there  is  more  lost  to  rational  liberty  by  a  censorship  of 
the  press  by  suppressing  information  proper  to  be  known  to  the 
people,  than  can  be  lost  to  an  individual  now  and  then  by  a 
temporary  injury  to  his  character  and  influence  by  the  utmost 
licentiousness. 

There  were  other  causes  to  heighten  the  excitement.  These 
people  had  undertaken  to  innovate  upon  the  established  systems 
of  religion.  Their  legal  right  to  do  so,  no  one  will  question. 
But  all  history  bears  testimony  that  innovations  upon  religion 
have  always  been  attended  by  a  hostility  in  the  public  mind, 
which  sometimes  has  produced '  the  most  desolating  wars ;  al- 
ways more  or  less  of  persecution.  Even  the  innocent  Quakers, 
the  unoffending  Shakers,  and  the  quiet  and  orderly  Methodists 
in  their  origin,  and  until  the  world  got  used  to  them,  had  enough 
of  persecution  to  encounter.  But  if  either  of  these  sects  had 
congregated  together  in  one  city  where  the  world  could  never 
get  to  know  them ;  could  never  ascertain  by  personal  acquaint- 
ance the  truth  or  falsity  of  many  reports  which  are  always  cir- 
culated to  the  prejudice  of  such  innovators ;  and  moreover,  if 
they  had  armed  themselves  and  organized  into  a  military  legion 
as  the  citizens  of  Nauvoo,  and  had  been  guilty  of  high-handed 
proceedings  carried  on  against  the  heretical  press,  the  public 
animosity  and  their  persecutions  must  have  greatly  increased 
in  rancor  and  severity. 

In  addition  to  these  causes  of  excitement,  there  were  a  great 
many  reports  in  circulation,  and  generally  believed  by  the  peo- 
ple. These  reports  I  have  already  alluded  to,  and  they  had 
much  influence  in  swelling  the  public  excitement. 

It  was  asserted  that  Joe  Smith,  the  founder  and  head  of  the 
Mormon  church,  had  caused  himself  to  be  crowned  and  anoint- 
ed king  of  the  Mormons  ;  that  he  had  embodied  a  band  of  his 
followers  called  "  Danites,"  who  were  sworn  to  obey  him  as 


HISTORY   OF    ILLINOIS.  327 

God,  and  to  do  his  commands,  murder  and  treason  not  except- 
ed ;  that  he  had  instituted  an  order  in  the  church,  whereby  those 
who  composed  it  were  pretended  to  be  sealed  up  to  eternal  life 
against  all  crimes,  save  the  shedding  of  innocent  blood  or  con- 
senting thereto.  That  this  order  was  instructed  that  no  blood 
was  innocent  blood,  except  that  of  the  members  of  the  church ; 
and  that  these  two  orders  were  made  the  ministers  of  his  ven- 
geance, and  the  instruments  of  an  intolerable  tyranny  which  he 
had  established  over  his  people,  and  which  he  was  about  to  ex- 
tend over  the  neighboring  country.  The  people  affected  to  be- 
lieve that  with  this  power  in  the  hands  of  an  unscrupulous 
leader,  there  was  no  safety  for  the  lives  or  property  of  any  one 
who  should  oppose  him.  They  affected  likewise  to  believe  that 
Smith  inculcated  the  legality  of  perjury,  or  any  other  crime  in 
defence,  or  to  advance  the  interests  of  true  believers  ;  and  that 
himself  had  set  them  the  example  by  swearing  to  a  false  accu- 
sation against  a  certain  person,  for  the  crime  of  murder.  It 
was  likewise  asserted  to  be  a  fundamental  article  of  the  Mor- 
mon faith,  that  God  had  given  the  world  and  all  it  contained 
to  them  as  his  saints ;  that  they  secretly  believed  in  their  right 
to  all  the  goodly  lands,  farms,  and  property  in  the  country ; 
that  at  present  they  were  kept  out  of  their  rightful  inheritance 
by  force ;  that  consequently  there  was  no  moral  offence  in  an- 
ticipating God's  good  time  to  put  them  in  possession  by  steal- 
ing, if  opportunity  offered ;  that  in  fact  the  whole  church  was  a 
community  of  murderers,  thieves,  robbers,  and  outlaws ;  that 
Joseph  Smith  had  established  a  bogus  factory  in  Nauvoo,  for 
the  manufacture  of  counterfeit  money ;  and  that  he  maintained 
about  his  person  a  tribe  of  swindlers,  blacklegs,  and  counter- 
feiters, to  make  it  and  put  it  into  circulation. 

It  was  also  believed  that  he  had  announced  a  revelation  from 
heaven,  sanctioning  polygamy,  by  a  kind  of  spiritual  wife  sys- 
tem, whereby  a  man  was  allowed  one  wife  in  pursuance  of  the 
laws  of  the  country,  and  an  indefinite  number  of  others,  to  be 


328  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

enjoyed  in  some  mystical  and  spiritual  mode ;  and  that  he  him- 
self, and  many  of  his  followers,  had  practiced  upon  the  precepts 
of  this  revelation  by  seducing  a  large  number  of  women. 

It  was  also  asserted  that  he  was  in  alliance  with  the  Indians 
of  the  western  territories,  and  had  obtained  over  them  such  a 
control,  that  in  case  of  a  war  he  could  command  their  assist- 
ance to  murder  his  enemies. 

Upon  the  whole,  if  one-half  of  these  reports  had  been  true, 
the  Mormon  community  must  have  been  the  most  intolerable 
collection  of  rogues  ever  assembled ;  or,  if  one-half  them  were 
false,  they  were  the  most  maligned  and  abused. 

Fortunately  for  the  purposes  of  those  who  were  active  in  cre- 
ating excitement,  there  were  many  known  truths  which  gave 
countenance  to  some  of  these  accusations.  It  was  sufficiently 
proved  in  a  proceeding  at  Carthage,  whilst  I  was  there,  that 
Joe  Smith  had  sent  a  band  of  his  followers  to  Missouri,  to  kid- 
nap two  men,  who  were  witnesses  against  a  member  of  his 
church,  then  in  jail,  and  about  to  be  tried  on  a  charge  of  lar- 
ceny. It  was  also  a  notorious  fact,  that  he  had  assaulted  and 
severely  beaten  an  officer  of  the  county,  for  an  alleged  non- 
performance  of  his  duty,  at  a  time  when  that  officer  was  just 
recovering  from  severe  illness.  It  is  a  fact  also,  that  he  stood 
indicted  for  the  crime  of  perjury,  as  was  alleged,  in  swearing 
to  an  accusation  for  murder,  in  order  to  drive  a  man  out  of 
Nauvoo,  who  had  been  engaged  in  buying  and  selling  lots  and 
land,  and  thus  interfering  with  the  monopoly  of  the  prophet  as 
a  speculator.  It  is  a  fact  also,  that  his  municipal  court,  of 
which  he  was  chief  justice,  by  writ  of  habeas  corpus  had  fre- 
quently discharged  individuals  accused  of  high  crimes  and  of- 
fences against  the  laws  of  the  State ;  and  on  one  occasion  had 
discharged  a  person  accused  of  swindling  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  and  who  had  been  arrested  by  process  of  the 
federal  courts ;  thereby  giving  countenance  to  the  report,  that 
he  obstructed  the  administration  of  justice,  and  had  set  up  a 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  329 

government  at  Nauvoo  independent  of  the  laws  and  govern- 
ment of  the  State.  This  idea  was  further  corroborated  in  the 
minds  of  the  people,  by  the  fact  that  the  people  of  Nauvoo  had 
petitioned  Congress  for  a  territorial  government  to  be  estab- 
lished there,  and  to  be  independent  of  the  State  government. 
It  was  a  fact  also,  that  some  larcenies  and  robberies  had  been 
committed,  and  that  Mormons  had  been  convicted  of  the  crimes, 
and  that  other  larcenies  had  been  committed  by  persons  un- 
known, but  suspected  to  be  Mormons.  Justice,  however,  re- 
quires me  here  to  say,  that  upon  such  investigation  as  I  then 
could  make,  the  charge  of  promiscuous  stealing  appeared  to  be 
exaggerated. 

Another  cause  of  excitement,  was  a  report  industriously  cir- 
culated, and  generally  believed,  that  Hiram  Smith,  another 
leader  of  the  Mormon  church,  had  offered  a  reward  for  the 
destruction  of  the  press  of  the  "  Warsaw  Signal,"  a  newspaper 
published  in  the  county,  and  the  organ  of  the  opposition  to  the 
Mormons.  It  was  also  asserted,  that  the  Mormons  scattered 
through  the  settlements  of  the  county,  had  threatened  all  per- 
sons who  turned  out  to  assist  the  constables,  with  the  destruc- 
tion of  their  property  and  the  murder  of  their  families,  in  the 
absence  of  their  fathers,  brothers,  and  husbands.  A  Mormon 
woman  in  M'Donough  county  was  imprisoned  for  threatening 
to  poison  the  wells  of  the  people  who  turned  out  in  the  posse ; 
and  a  Mormon  in  Warsaw  publicly  avowed  that  he  was  bound 
by  his  religion  to  obey  all  orders  of  the  prophet,  even  to  com- 
mit murder  if  so  commanded. 

But  the  great  cause  of  popular  fury  was,  that  the  Mormons 
at  several  preceding  elections,  had  cast  their  vote  as  a  unit ; 
thereby  making  the  fact  apparent,  that  no  one  could  aspire  to 
the  honors  or  offices  of  the  country  within  the  sphere  of  their 
influence,  without  their  approbation  and  votes.  It  appears  to 
be  one  of  the  principles  by  which  they  insist  upon  being  gov- 
erned as  a  community,  to  act  as  a  unit  in  all  matters  of  govern- 


330  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

merit  and  religion.  They  express  themselves  to  be  fearful  that 
if  division  should  be  encouraged  in  politics,  it  would  soon  ex- 
tend to  their  religion,  and  rend  their  church  with  schism  and 
into  sects. 

This  seems  to  me  to  be  an  unfortunate  view  of  the  subject, 
and  more  unfortunate  in  practice,  as  I  am  well  satisfied  that  it 
must  be  the  fruitful  source  of  excitement,  violence,  and  mob- 
ocracy,  whilst  it  is  persisted  in.  It  is  indeed  unfortunate  for 
their  peace  that  they  do  not  divide  in  elections,  according  to 
their  individual  preferences  or  political  principles,  like  other 
people. 

This  one  principle  and  practice  of  theirs  arrayed  against  them 
in  deadly  hostility  all  aspirants  for  office  who  were  not  sure  of 
their  support,  all  who  have  been  unsuccessful  in  elections,  and 
all  who  were  too  proud  to  court  their  influence,  with  all  their 
friends  and  connections. 

These  also  were  the  active  men  in  blowing  up  the  fury  of  the 
people,  in  hopes  that  a  popular  movement  might  be  set  on  foot, 
which  would  result  in  the  expulsion  or  extermination  of  the 
Mormon  voters.  For  this  purpose,  public  meetings  had  been 
called ;  inflammatory  speeches  had  been  made ;  exaggerated  re- 
ports had  been  extensively  circulated ;  committees  had  been  ap- 
pointed, who  rode  night  and  day  to  spread  the  reports,  and  so- 
licit the  aid  of  neighboring  counties.  And  at  a  public  meeting 
at  Warsaw,  resolutions  were  passed  to  expel  or  exterminate  the 
Mormon  population.  This  was  not,  however,  a  movement  which 
was  unanimously  concurred  in.  The  county  contained  a  goodly 
number  of  inhabitants  in  favor  of  peace,  or  who  at  least  desired 
to  be  neutral  in  such  a  contest.  These  were  stigmatized  by  the 
name  of  "  Jack  Mormons"  and  there  were  not  a  few  of  the  more 
furious  exciters  of  the  people  who  openly  expressed  their  inten- 
tion to  involve  them  in  the  common  expulsion  or  extermina- 
tion. 

A  system  of  excitement  and  agitation  was  artfully  planned 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  331 

and  executed  with  tact.  It  consisted  in  spreading  reports  and 
rumors  of  the  most  fearful  character.  As  examples  : — On  the 
morning  before  my  arrival  at  Carthage,  I  was  awakened  at  an 
early  hour  by  the  frightful  report,  which  was  asserted  with  confi- 
dence and  apparent  consternation,  that  the  Mormons  had  already 
commenced  the  work  of  burning,  destruction,  and  murder ;  and 
that  every  man  capable  of  bearing  arms  was  instantly  wanted  at 
Carthage,  for  the  protection  of  the  country.  We  lost  no  time  in 
starting ;  but  when  we  arrived  at  Carthage,  we  could  hear  no  more 
concerning  this  story.  Again :  during  the  few  days  that  the  mili- 
tia were  encamped  at  Carthage,  frequent  applications  were  made 
to  me  to  send  a  force  here  and  a  force  there,  and  a  force  all 
about  the  country,  to  prevent  murders,  robberies,  and  larcenies, 
which,  it  was  said,  were  threatened  by  the  Mormons.  No'  such 
forces  were  sent ;  nor  were  any  such  offences  committed  at  that 
time,  except  the  stealing  of  some  provisions,  and  there  was 
never  the  least  proof  that  this  was  done  by  a  Mormon.  Again : 
on  my  late  visit  to  Hancock  county,  I  was  informed  by  some  of 
their  violent  enemies,  that  the  larcenies  of  the  Mormons  had 
become  unusually  numerous  and  insufferable.  They  indeed  ad- 
mitted that  but  little  had  been  done  in  this  way  in  their  imme- 
diate vicinity.  But  they  insisted  that  sixteen  horses  had  been 
stolen  by  the  Mormons  in  one  night,  near  Lima,  in  the  county 
of  Adams.  At  the  close  of  the  expedition,  I  called  at  this  same 
town  of  Lima,  and  upon  inquiry  was  told  that  no  horses  had 
been  stolen  in  that  neighborhood,  but  that  sixteen  horses  had 
been  stolen  in  one  night  in  Hancock  county.  This  last  inform- 
ant being  told  of  the  Hancock  story,  again  changed  the  venue 
to  another  distant  settlement  in  the  northern  edge  of  Adams. 

As  my  object  in  visiting  Hancock  was  expressly  to  assist  in 
the  execution  of  the  laws,  and  not  to  violate  them,  or  to  witness 
or  permit  their  violation,  as  I  was  convinced  that  the  Mormon 
leaders  had  committed  a  crime  in  the  destruction  of  the  press, 
and  had  resisted  the  execution  of  process,  I  determined  to  exert 


332  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  whole  force  of  the  State,  if  necessary,  to  bring  them  to  jus- 
tice. But  seeing  the  great  excitement  in  the  public  mind,  and 
the  manifest  tendency  of  this  excitement  to  run  into  mobocracy, 
I  was  of  opinion,  that  before  I  acted,  I  ought  to  obtain  a  pledge 
from  the  officers  and  men  to  support  me  in  strictly  legal  meas- 
ures, and  to  protect  the  prisoners  in  case  they  surrendered.  For 
I  was  determined,  if  possible,  that  the  forms  of  law  should  not 
be  made  the  catspaw  of  a  mob,  to  seduce  these  people  to  a 
quiet  surrender,  as  the  convenient  victims  of  popular  fury.  I 
therefore  called  together  the  whole  force  then  assembled  at 
Carthage,  and  made  an  address,  explaining  to  them  what  I  could, 
and  what  I  could  not,  legally  do ;  and  also  adducing  to  them  va- 
rious reasons  why  they  as  well  as  the  Mormons  should  submit 
to  the  laws ;  and  why,  if  they  had  resolved  upon  revolutionary 
proceedings,  their  purpose  should  be  abandoned.  The  assem- 
bled troops  seemed  much  pleased  with  the  address ;  and  upon 
its  conclusion  the  officers  and  men  unanimously  voted,  with  ac- 
clamation, to  sustain  me  in  a  strictly  legal  course,  and  that  the 
prisoners  should  be  protected  from  violence.  Upon  the  arrival 
of  additional  forces  from  Warsaw,  McDonough,  and  Schuyler, 
similar  addresses  were  made,  with  the  same  result. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  these  votes  fully  authorized  me  to  prom- 
ise the  accused  Mormons  the  protection  of  the  law  in  case  they 
surrendered.  They  were  accordingly  duly  informed  that  if  they 
surrendered  they  would  be  protected,  and  if  they  did  not,  the 
whole  force  of  the  State  would  be  called  out,  if  necessary,  to 
compel  their  submission  A  force  of  ten  men  was  despatched 
with  the  constable  to  make  the  arrests  and  to  guard  the  prison- 
ers to  head-quarters. 

In  the  meantime,  Joe  Smith,  as  Lieut.-General  of  the  Nauvoo 
Legion,  had  declared  martial  law  in  the  city  ;  the  Legion  was 
assembled,  and  ordered  under  arms ;  the  members  of  it  resid- 
ing in  the  country  were  ordered  into  town.  The  Mormon  set- 
tlements obeyed  the  summons  of  their  leader,  and  marched  to 


HISTOEY  OP  ILLINOIS.  333 

his  assistance.  Nauvoo  was  one  great  military  camp,  strictly 
guarded  and  watched  ;  and  no  ingress  or  egress  was  allowed, 
except  upon  the  strictest  examination.  In  one  instance,  which 
came  to  my  knowledge,  a  citizen  of  McDonough,  who  happen- 
ed to  be  in  the  city,  was  denied  the  privilege  of  returning,  until 
he  made  oath  that  he  did  not  "belong  to  the  party  at  Carthage, 
that  he  would  return  home  without  calling  at  Carthage,  and 
that  he  would  give  no  information'of  the  movement  of  the  Mor- 
mons. 

However,  upon  the  arrival  of  the  constable  and  guard,  the 
mayor  and  common  council  at  once  signified  their  willingness 
to  surrender,  and  stated  their  readiness  to  proceed  to  Carthage 
next  morning  at  eight  o'clock.  Martial  law  had  previously  been 
abolished.  The  hour  of  eight  o'clock  came,  and  the  accused 
failed  to  make  their  appearance.  The  constable  and  his  escort 
returned.  The  constable  made  no  effort  to  arrest  any  of  them, 
nor  would  he  or  the  guard  delay  their  departure  one  minute  be- 
yond the  time,  to  see  whether  an  arrest  could  be  made.  Upon 
their  return,  they  reported  that  they  had  been  informed  that 
the  accused  had  fled  and  could  not  be  found. 

I  immediately  proposed  to  a  council  of  officers  to  march  into 
Nauvoo  with  the  small  force  then  under  my  command,  but  the 
officers  were  of  opinion  that  it  was  too  small,  and  many  of  them 
insisted  upon  a  further  call  of  the  militia.  Upon  reflection,  I 
was  of  opinion  that  the  officers  were  right  in  the  estimate  of 
our  force,  and  the  project  for  immediate  action  was  abandoned. 
I  was  soon  informed,  however,  of  the  conduct  of  the  constable 
and  guard,  and  then  I  was  perfectly  satisfied  that  a  most  base 
fraud  had  been  attempted  ;  that,  in  fact,  it  was  feared  that  the 
Mormons  would  submit,  and  thereby  entitle  themselves  to  the 
protection  of  the  law.  It  was  very  apparent  that  many  of  the 
bustling,  active  spirits  were  afraid  that  there  would  be  no  occa- 
sion for  calling  out  an  overwhelming  militia  force,  for  marching 
it  into  Nauvoo,  for  probable  mutiny  when  there,  and  for  the  ex- 


334  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

termination  of  the  Mormon  race.  It  appeared  that  the  con- 
stable and  the  escort  were  fully  in  the  secret,  and  acted  well 
their  part  to  promote  the  conspiracy. 

Seeing  this  to  be  the  state  of  the  case,  I  delayed  any  further 
call  of  the  militia,  to  give  the  accused  another  opportunity  to 
surrender ;  for  indeed  I  was  most  anxious  to  avoid  a  general 
call  for  the  militia  at  that  critical  season  of  the  year.  The 
whole  spring  season  preceding  had  been  unusually  wet.  No 
ploughing  of  corn  had  been  done,  and  but  very  little  planting. 
The  season  had  just  changed  to  be  suitable  for  ploughing.  The 
crops  which  had  been  planted,  were  universally  suffering ;  and 
the  loss  of  two  weeks,  or  even  of  one,  at  that  time,  was  likely 
to  produce  a  general  famine  all  over  the  country.  The  wheat 
harvest  was  also  approaching ;  and  if  we  got  into  a  war,  there 
was  no  foreseeing  when  it  would  end,  or  when  the  militia  could 
safely  be  discharged.  In  addition  to  these  considerations,  all 
the  grist  mills  in  all  that  section  of  the  country  had  been  swept 
away,  or  disabled,  by  the  high  waters,  leaving  the  inhabitants 
almost  without  meal  or  flour,  and  making  it  impossible  then  to 
procure  provisions  by  impressment  or  otherwise,  for  the  sus- 
tenance of  any  considerable  force. 

This  was  the  time  of  the  high  waters ;  of  astonishing  floods 
in  all  the  rivers  and  creeks  in  the  western  country.  The  Mis- 
sissippi river  at  St.  Louis,  was  several  feet  higher  than  it  was 
ever  known  before ;  it  was  up  into  the  second  stories  of  the 
warehouses  on  Water  street ;  the  steamboats  ran  up  to  these 
warehouses,  and  could  scarcely  receive  their  passengers  from 
the  second  stories ;  the  whole  American  bottom  was  overflowed 
from  eight  to  twenty  feet  deep,  and  steamboats  freely  crossed 
the  bottom  along  the  road  from  St.  Louis  to  the  opposite  bluffs 
in  Illinois  ;  houses  and  fences  and  stock  of  all  kinds,  were  swept 
away,  the  fields  near  the  river,  after  the  water  subsided,  being 
covered  with  sand  from  a  foot  to  three  feet  deep ;  which  was 
generally  thrown  into  ridges  and  washed  into  gullies,  so  as  to 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  335 

spoil  the  land  for  cultivation.  Families  had  great  difficulty  in 
making  their  escape.  Through  the  active  exertions  of  Mr. 
Pratt,  the  mayor  of  St.  Louis,  steamboats  were  sent  in  every 
direction  to  their  relief.  The  boats  found  many  of  the  families 
on  the  tops  of  their  houses  just  ready  to  be  floated  away.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  bottom  lost  nearly  all  their  personal  property. 
A  large  number  of  them  were  taken  to  St.  Louis  in  a  state  of 
entire  destitution,  and  their  necessities  were  supplied  by  the 
contributions  of  the  charitable  of  that  city.  A  larger  number 
were  forced  out  on  to  the  Illinois  bluffs,  where  they  encamped, 
and  were  supplied  with  provisions  by  the  neighboring  inhab- 
itants. This  freshet  nearly  ruined  the  ancient  village  of  Kas- 
kaskia.  The  inhabitants  were  driven  away  and  scattered,  many 
of  them  never  to  return.  For  many  years  before  this  flood, 
there  had  been  a  flourishing  institution  at  Kaskaskia,  under  the 
direction  of  an  order  of  nuns  of  the  Catholic  Church.  They  had 
erected  an  extensive  building,  which  was  surrounded  and  filled 
by  the  waters  to  the  second  story.  But  they  were  all  safely 
taken  away,  pupils  and  all,  by  a  steamboat  which  was  sent  to 
their  relief,  and  which  ran  directly  up  to  the  building  and  re- 
ceived its  inmates  from  the  second  story.  This  school  was  now 
transferred  to  St.  Louis,  where  it  yet  remains.  All  the  rivers 
and  streams  in  Illinois  were  as  high,  and  did  as  much  damage 
in  proportion  to  their  length  and  the  extent  of  their  bottoms,  as 
the  Mississippi. 

This  great  flood  destroyed  the  last  hope  of  getting  provisions 
at  home;  and  I  was  totally  without  funds  belonging  to  the 
State,  with  which  to  purchase  at  more  distant  markets,  and 
there  was  a  certainty  that  such  purchases  could  not  have  been 
made  on  credit  abroad.  For  these  reasons  I  was  desirous  of 
avoiding  a  war,  if  it  could  be  avoided. 

In  the  meantime,  I  made  a  requisition  upon  the  officers  of 
the  Nauvoo  legion  for  the  State  arms  in  their  possession.  It 
appears  that  there  was  no  evidence  in  the  quartermaster-gen- 


336  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

eral's  office  of  the  number  and  description  of  arms  with  which 
the  legion  had  been  furnished.  Dr.  Bennett,  after  he  had  been 
appointed  quartermaster-general,  had  joined  the  Mormons,  and 
had  disposed  of  the  public  arms  as  he  pleased,  without  keeping 
or  giving  any  account  of  them.  On  this  subject  I  applied  to 
Gen.  Wilson  Law  for  information.  He  had  lately  been  the 
major-general  of  the  legion.  He  had  seceded  from  the  Mormon 
party ;  was  one  of  the  owners  of  the  proscribed  press ;  had  left 
the  city,  as  he  said,  in  fear  of  his  life ;  and  was  one  of  the  party 
asking  for  justice  against  its  constituted  authorities.  He  was 
interested  to  exaggerate  the  number  of  arms,  rather  than  to 
place  it  at  too  low  an  estimate.  From  his  information  I  learned 
that  the  legion  had  received  three  pieces  of  cannon  and  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  stand  of  small  arms  and  their  accoutre- 
ments. Of  these,  the  three  pieces  of  cannon  and  two  hundred' 
and  twenty  stand  of  small  arms  were  surrendered.  These  arms 
were  demanded,  because  the  legion  was  illegally  used  in  the 
destruction  of  the  press,  and  in  enforcing  martial  law  in  the 
city,  in  open  resistance  to  legal  process,  and  the  posse  com- 
itatus. 

I  demanded  the  surrender  also,  on  account  of  the  great  prej- 
udice and  excitement  which  the  possession  of  these  arms  by 
the  Mormons  had  always  kindled  in  the  minds  of  the  people. 
A  large  portion  of  the  people,  by  pure  misrepresentation,  had 
been  made  to  believe  that  the  legion  had  received  of  the  State 
as  many  as  thirty  pieces  of  artillery  and  five  or  six  thousand 
stand  of  small  arms,  which,  in  all  probability,  would  soon  be 
wielded  for  the  conquest  of  the  country ;  and  for  their  sub- 
jection to  Mormon  domination.  I  was  of  opinion  that  the  re- 
moval of  these  arms  would  tend  much  to  allay  this  excitement 
and  prejudice ;  and  in  point  of  fact,  although  wearing  a  severe 
aspect,  would  be  an  act  of  real  kindness  to  the  Mormons  them- 
selves. 

On  the  23d  or  24th  day  of  June,  Joe  Smith,  the  mayor  of 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  337 

Nauvoo,  together  with  his  brother  Hiram  and  all  the  members 
of  the  council  and  all  others  demanded,  came  into  Carthage 
and  surrendered  themselves  prisoners  to  the  constable,  on  the 
charge  of  riot.  They  all  voluntarily  entered  into  a  recognizance 
before  the  justice  of  the  peace,  for  their  appearance  at  court  to 
answer  the  charge.  And  all  of  them  were  discharged  from 
custody  except  Joe  and  Hiram  Smith,  against  whom  the  magis- 
trate had  issued  a  new  writ,  on  a  complaint  of  treason.  They 
were  immediately  arrested  by  the  constable  on  this  charge,  and 
retained  in  his  custody  to  answer  it. 

The  overt  act  of  treason  charged  against  them  consisted  in 
the  alleged  levying  of  war  against  the  State  by  declaring  mar- 
tial law  in  Nauvoo,  and  in  ordering  out  the  legion  to  resist  the 
posse  comitatus.  Their  actual  guiltiness  of  the  charge  would  de- 
pend upon  circumstances.  If  their  opponents  had  been  seeking 
to  put  the  law  in  force  in  good  faith,  and  nothing  more,  then 
an  array  of  a  military  force  in  open  resistance  to  the  posse  com- 
itatus and  the  militia  of  the  State,  most  probably  would  have 
amounted  to  treason.  But  if  those  opponents  merely  intended  to 
use  the  process  of  the  law,  the  militia  of  the  State,  and  the  posse 
comitatus,  as  cats-paws  to  compass  the  possessions  of  their  per- 
sons for  the  purpose  of  murdering  them  afterwards,  as  the  sequel 
demonstrated  the  fact  to  be,  it  might  well  be  doubted  whether 
they  were  guilty  of  treason. 

Soon  after  the  surrender  of  the  Smiths,  at  their  request  I  de- 
spatched Captain  Singleton  with  his  company  from  Brown 
county  to  Nauvoo,  to  guard  the  town;  and  I  authorized  him  to 
take  command  of  the  legion.  He  reported  to  me  afterwards, 
that  he  called  out  the  legion  for  inspection  ;  and  that  upon  two 
hours'  notice  two  thousand  of  them  assembled,  all  of  them 
armed ;  and  this  after  the  public  arms  had  been  taken  away 
from  them.  So  it  appears  that  they  had  a  sufficiency  of  private 
arms  for  any  reasonable  purpose. 

After  the  Smiths  had  been  arrested  on  the  new  charge  of 

15 


338  msTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

treason,  the  justice  of  the  peace  postponed  the  examination,  be- 
cause neither  of  the  parties  were  prepared  with  their  witnesses 
for  trial.  In  the  meantime,  he  committed  them  to  the  jail  of 
the  county  for  greater  security. 

In  all  this  matter  the  justice  of  the  peace  and  constable, 
though  humble  in  office,  were  acting  in  a  high  and  independent 
capacity,  far  beyond  any  legal  power  in  me  to  control.  I  con- 
sidered that  the  executive  power  could  only  be  called  in  to  as- 
sist, and  not  to  dictate  or  control  their  action ;  that  in  the  hum- 
ble sphere  of  their  duties  they  were  as  independent,  and  clothed 
with  as  high  authority  by  the  law,  as  the  executive  department ; 
and  that  my  province  was  simply  to  aid  them  with  the  force  of 
the  State.  It  is  true,  that  so  far  as  I  could  prevail  on  them  by 
advice,  I  endeavored  to  do  so.  The  prisoners  were  not  in  mili- 
tary custody,  or  prisoners  of  war ;  and  I  could  no  more  legally 
control  these  officers,  than  I  could  the  superior  courts  of  justice. 

Some  persons  have  supposed  that  I  ought  to  have  had  them 
sent  to  some  distant  and  friendly  part  of  the  State,  for  confine- 
ment and  trial ;  and  that  I  ought  to  have  searched  them  for  con- 
cealed arms ;  but  these  surmises  and  suppositions  are  readily 
disposed  of,  by  the  fact,  that  they  were  not  my  prisoners ;  but 
were  the  prisoners  of  the  constable  and  jailer,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  justice  of  the  peace.  And  also  by  the  fact,  that  by 
law  they  could  be  tried  in  no  other  county  than  Hancock. 

The  jail  in  which  they  were  confined,  is  a  considerable  stone 
building ;  containing  a  residence  for  the  jailer,  cells  for  the  close 
and  secure  confinement  of  prisoners,  and  one  larger  room  not 
so  strong,  but  more  airy  and  comfortable  than  the  cells.  They 
were  put  into  the  cells  by  the  jailer ;  but  upon  their  remon- 
strance and  request,  and  by  my  advice,  they  were  transferred 
to  the  larger  room ;  and  there  they  remained  until  the  final 
catastrophe.  Neither  they  nor  I,  seriously  apprehended  an  at- 
tack on  the  jail  through  the  guard  stationed  to  protect  it.  Nor 
did  I  apprehend  the  least  danger  on  their  part  of  an  attempt  to 


HISTOEY   OF   ILLINOIS.  339 

escape.  For  I  was  very  sure  that  any  such  an  attempt  would 
have  been  the  signal  of  their  immediate  death.  Indeed,  if  they 
had  escaped,  it  would  have  been  fortunate  for  the  purposes  of 
those  who  were  anxious  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Mormon  popu 
lation.  For  the  great  body  of  that  people  would  most  assured- 
ly have  followed  their  prophet  and  principal  leaders,  as  they 
did  in  their  flight  from  Missouri.* 

The  force  assembled  at  Carthage  amounted  to  about  twelve 
or  thirteen  hundred  men,  and  it  was  calculated  that  four  or  five 
hundred  more  were  assembled  at  Warsaw.  Nearly  all  that 
portion  resident  in  Hancock  were  anxious  to  be  marched  into 
Nauvoo.  This  measure  was  supposed  to  be  necessary  to  search 
for  counterfeit  money  and  the  apparatus  to  make  it,  and  also  to 
strike  a  salutary  terror  into  the  Mormon  people  by  an  exhibi- 
tion of  the  force  of  the  State,  and  thereby  prevent  future  out- 
rages, murders,  robberies,  burnings,  and  the  like,  apprehended 
as  the  effect  of  Mormon  vengeance,  on  those  who  had  taken  a 
part  against  them.  On  my  part,  at  one  time,  this  arrangement 
was  agreed  to.  The  morning  of  the  27th  day  of  June  was  appoint- 

*  I  learned  afterwards  that  the  leaders  of  the  anti-Mormons  did  much 
to  stimulate  their  followers  to  the  murder  of  the  Smiths  in  jail,  by  al- 
leging that  the  governor  intended  to  favor  their  escape.  If  this  had 
been  true,  and  could  have  been  well  carried  out,  it  would  have  been 
the  best  way  of  getting  rid  of  the  Mormons.  These  leaders  of  the  Mor- 
mons would  never  have  dared  to  return,  and  they  would  have  been 
followed  in  their  flight  by  all  their  church.  I  had  such  a  plan  in  my 
mind,  but  I  had  never  breathed  it  to  a  living  soul,  and  was  thus 
thwarted  in  ridding  the  State  of  the  Mormons  two  years  before  they 
actually  left,  by  the  insane  frenzy  of  the  anti-Mormons.  Joe  Smith, 
when  he  escaped  from  Missouri,  had  no  difficulty  in  again  collecting 
his  sect  about  him  at  Nauvoo ;  and  so  the  twelve  apostles,  after  they 
had  been  at  the  head  of  affairs  long  enough  to  establish  their  authority 
and  influence  as  leaders,  had  no  difficulty  in  getting  nearly  the  whole 
body  of  Mormons  to  follow  them  into  the  wilderness  two  years  after 
the  death  of  their  pretended  prophet. 


340  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

ed  for  the  march ;  and  Golden's  Point,  near  the  Mississippi  riv- 
er, and  about  equi-distant  from  Nauvoo  and  Warsaw,  was  se-  , 
lected  as  the  place  of  rendezvous.  I  had  determined  to  prevail 
on  the  justice  to  bring  out  his  prisoners,  and  take  them  along. 
A  council  of  officers,  however,  determined  that  this  would  be 
highly  inexpedient  and  dangerous,  and  offered  such  substantial 
reasons  for  their  opinions  as  induced  me  to  change  my  resolu- 
tion. 

Two  or  three  days'  preparations  had  been  made  for  this  ex- 
pedition. I  observed  that  some  of  the  people  became  more 
and  more  excited  and  inflammatory  the  further  the  preparations 
were  advanced.  Occasional  threats  came  to  my  ears  of  destroy- 
ihg  the  city  and  murdering  or  expelling  the  inhabitants. 

I  had  no  objection  to  ease  the  terrors  of  the  people  by  such 
a  display  of  force,  and  was  most  anxious  also  to  search  for  the 
alleged  apparatus  for  making  counterfeit  money ;  and,  in  fact, 
to  inquire  into  all  the  charges  against  that  people,  if  I  could 
have  been  assured  of  my  command  against  mutiny  and  insub- 
ordination. But  I  gradually  learned,  to  my  entire  satisfaction, 
that  there  was  a  plan  to  get  the  troops  into  Nauvoo,  and  there 
to  begin  the  war,  probably  by  some  of  our  own  party,  or  some 
of  the  seceding  Mormons,  taking  advantage  of  the  night,  to  fire 
on  our  own  force,  and  then  laying  it  on  the  Mormons.  I  was 
satisfied  that  there  were  those  amongst  us  fully  capable  of  such 
an  act,  hoping  that  in  the  alarm,  bustle,  and  confusion  of  a  mili- 
tia camp,  the  truth  could  not  be  discovered,  and  that  it  might 
lead  to  the  desired  collision. 

I  had  many  objections  to  be  made  the  dupe  of  any  such  or 
similar  artifice.  I  was  openly  and  boldly  opposed  to  any  attack 
on  the  city,  unless  it  should  become  necessary,  to  arrest  prison- 
ers legally  charged  and  demanded.  Indeed,  if  any  one  will  re- 
flect upon  the  number  of  women,  inoffensive  and  young  persons, 
and  innocent  children,  which  must  be  contained  in  such  a  city 
of  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants,  it  would  seem  to  me 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  341 

his  heart  would  relent  and  rebel  against  such  violent  resolu- 
tions. Nothing  but  the  most  blinded  and  obdurate  fury  could 
incite  a  person,  even  if  he  had  the  power,  to  the  willingness  of 
driving  such  persons,  bare  and  houseless,  on  to  the  prairies,  to 
starve,  suffer,  and  even  steal,  as  they  must  have  done,  for  sub- 
sistence. No  one  who  has  children  of  his  own  would  think  of 
it  for  a  moment. 

Besides  this,  if  we  had  been  ever  so  much  disposed  to  com- 
mit such  an  act  of  wickedness,  we  evidently  had  not  the  power 
to  do  it.  I  was  well  assured  that  the  Mormons,  at  a  short  no- 
tice, could  muster  as  many  as  two  or  three  thousand  well- 
armed  men.  We  had  not  more  than  seventeen  hundred,  with 
three  pieces  of  cannon,  and  about  twelve  hundred  stand  of  small 
arms.  We  had  provisions  for  two  days  only,  and  would  be 
compelled  to  disband  at  the  end  of  that  time.  To  think  of  be- 
ginning a  war  under  such  circumstances  was  a  plain  absurdity. 
If  the  Mormons  had  succeeded  in  repulsing  our  attack,  as  most 
likely  would  have  been  the  case,  the  country  must  necessarily 
be  given  up  to  their  ravages  until  a  new  force  could  be  assem- 
bled, and  provisions  made  for  its  subsistence.  Or  if  we  should 
have  succeeded  in  driving  them  from  their  city,  they  would  have 
scattered  ;  and,  being  justly  incensed  at  our  barbarity,  and  suf- 
fering with  privation  and  hunger,  would  have  spread  desolation 
all  over  the  country,  without  any  possibility,  on  our  part,  with 
the  force  we  then  had,  of  preventing  it.  Again :  they  would 
have  had  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  subsist  their  force  in 
the  field  by  plundering  their  enemies. 

All  these  considerations  were  duly  urged  by  me  upon  the 
attention  of  a  council  of  officers,  convened  on  the  morning  of 
27th  of  June.  I  also  urged  upon  the  council,  that  such  wanton 
and  unprovoked  barbarity  on  their  part  would  turn  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  people  in  the  surrounding  counties  in  favor  of  the 
Mormons,  and  therefore  it  would  be  impossible  to  raise  a  vol- 
unteer militia  force  to  protect  such  a  people  against  them. 


342  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Many  of  the  officers  admitted  that  there  might  be  danger  of 
collision.  But  such  was  the  blind  fury  prevailing  at  the  time, 
though  not  showing  itself  by  much  visible  excitement,  that  a 
small  majority  of  the  council  adhered  to  the  first  resolution  of 
marching  into  Nauvoo ;  most  of  the  officers  of  the  Schuyler 
and  McDonough  militia  voting  against  it,  and  most  of  those  of 
the  county  of  Hancock  voting  in  its  favor. 

A  very  responsible  duty  now  devolved  upon  me,  to  determine 
whether  I  would,  as  commander-in-chief,  be  governed  by  the 
advice  of  this  majority.  I  had  no  hesitation  in  deciding  that  I 
would  not ;  but  on  the  contrary,  I  ordered  the  troops  to  be  dis- 
banded, both  at  Carthage  and  Warsaw,  with  the  exception  of 
three  companies,  two  of  which  were  retained  as  a  guard  to  the 
jail,  and  the  other  was  retained  to  accompany  me  to  Nauvoo. 

The  officers  insisted  much  in  council  upon  the  necessity  of 
marching  to  that  place  to  search  for  apparatus  to  make  coun- 
terfeit money,  and  more  particularly  to  terrify  the  Mormons 
from  attempting  any  open  or  secret  measures  of  vengeance 
against  the  citizens  of  the  county,  who  had  taken  a  part  against 
them  or  their  leaders.  To  ease  their  terrors  on  this  head,  I 
proposed  to  them  that  I  would  myself  proceed  to  the  city,  ac- 
companied by  a  small  force,  make  the  proposed  search,  and  de- 
liver an  address  to  the  Mormons,  and  tell  them  plainly  what 
degree  of  excitement  and  hatred  prevailed  against  them  in  the 
minds  of  the  whole  people,  and  that  if  any  open  or  secret  vio- 
lence should  be  committed  on  the  persons  or  property  of  those 
who  had  taken  part  against  them,  that  no  one  would  doubt  but 
that  it  had  been  perpetrated  by  them,  and  that  it  would  be  the 
sure  and  certain  means  of  the  destruction  of  their  city  and  the 
extermination  of  their  people. 

I  ordered  two  companies  under  the  command  of  Capt.  R.  F. 
Smith,  of  the  Carthage  Grays,  to  guard  the  jail.  In  selecting 
these  companies,  and  particularly  the  company  of  the  Carthage 
Grays  for  this  service,  I  have  been  subjected  to  some  censure. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  343 

It  has  been  said  that  this  company  had  already  been  guilty  of 
mutiny,  and  had  been  ordered  to  be  arrested  whilst  in  the  en- 
campment at  Carthage  ;  and  that  they  and  their  officers  were 
the  deadly  enemies  of  the  prisoners.  Indeed  it  would  have 
been  difficult  to  find  friends  of  the  prisoners  under  my  com- 
mand, unless  I  had  called  in  the  Mormons  as  a  guard ;  and  this 
I  was  satisfied  would  have  led  to  the  immediate  war,  and  the 
sure  death  of  the  prisoners. 

It  is  true  that  this  company  had  behaved  badly  towards  the 
brigadier-general  in  command,  on  the  occasion  when  the  prison- 
ers were  shown  along  the  line  of  the  McDonough  militia.  This 
company  had  been  ordered  as  a  guard.  They  were  under  the 
belief  that  the  prisoners,  who  were  arrested  for  a  capital  offence, 
were  shown  to  the  troops  in  a  kind  of  triumph ;  and  that  they 
had  been  called  on  as  a  triumphal  escort  to  grace  the  procession. 
They  also  entertained  a  very  bad  feeling  towards  the  brigadier- 
general  who  commanded  their  service  on  the  occasion.  The 
truth  is,  however,  that  this  company  was  never  ordered  to  be 
arrested ;  that  the  Smiths  were  not  shown  to  the  McDonough 
troops  as  a  mark  of  honor  and  triumph,  but  were  shown  to 
them  at  the  urgent  request  of  the  troops  themselves,  to  gratify 
their  curiosity  in  beholding  persons  who  had  made  themselves 
so  notorious  in  the  country. 

When  the  Carthage  Grays  ascertained  what  was  the  true 
motive  in  showing  the  prisoners  to  the  troops,  they  were  per- 
fectly satisfied.  All  due  atonement  was  made  on  their  part, 
for  their  conduct  to  the  brigadier-general,  and  they  cheerfully 
returned  to  their  duty. 

Although  I  knew  that  this  company  were  the  enemies  of  the 
Smiths,  yet  I  had  confidence  in  their  loyalty  and  integrity; 
because  their  captain  was  universally  spoken  of  as  a  most  re- 
spectable citizen  and  honorable  man.  The  company  itself  was 
an  old  independent  company,  well  armed,  uniformed,  and 
drilled ;  and  the  members  of  it  were  the  elite  of  the  militia  of 


344  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  county.  I  relied  upon  this  company  especially,  because  it 
was  an  independent  company,  for  a  long  time  instructed  and 
practiced  in  military  discipline  and  subordination.  I  also  had 
their  word  and  honor,  officers  and  men,  to  do  their  duty  accord- 
ing to  law.  Besides  all  this,  the  officers  and  most  of  the  men 
resided  in  Carthage ;  in  the  near  vicinity  of  Nauvoo ;  and,  as  I 
thought,  must  know  that  they  would  make  themselves  and  their 
property  convenient  and  conspicuous  marks  of  Mormon  ven- 
geance, in  case  they  were  guilty  of  treachery. 

I  had  at  first  intended  to  select  a  guard  from  the  county  of 
McDonough,  but  the  militia  of  that  county  were  very  much  dis- 
satisfied to  remain ;  their  crops  were  suffering  at  home  ;  they 
were  in  a  perfect  fever  to  be  discharged ;  and  I  was  destitute  of 
provisions  to  supply  them  for  more  than  a  few  days.  They 
were  far  from  home,  where  they  could  not  supply  themselves. 
Whilst  the  Carthage  company  could  board  at  their  own  houses, 
and  would  be  put  to  little  inconvenience  in  comparison. 

What  gave  me  greater  confidence  in  the  selection  of  this  com- 
pany as  a  prudent  measure  was,  that  the  selection  was  first  sug- 
gested and  urged  by  the  brigadier-general  in  command,  who 
was  well  known  to  be  utterly  hostile  to  all  mobocracy  and  vio- 
lence towards  the  prisoners,  and  who  was  openly  charged  by 
the  violent  party  with  being  on  the  side  of  the  Mormons.  At 
any  rate  I  knew  that  the  jail  would  have  to  be  guarded  as  long 
as  the  prisoners  were  confined  ;  that  an  imprisonment  for  trea- 
son might  last  the  whole  summer  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
autumn  before  a  trial  could  be  had  in  the  circuit  court ;  that  it 
would  be  utterly  impossible  in  the  circumstances  of  the  country 
to  keep  a  force  there  from  a  foreign  county  for  so  long  a  time ; 
and  that  a  time  must  surely  come  when  the  duty  of  guarding 
the  jail  would  necessarily  devolve  on  the  citizens  of  the  county. 

It  is  true,  also,  that  at  this  time  I  had  not  believed  or  suspect- 
ed that  any  attack  was  to  be  made  upon  the  prisoners  in  jail. 
It  is  true  that  I  was  aware  that  a  great  deal  of  hatred  existed 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  345 

against  them,  and  that  there  were  those  who  would  do  them  an 
injury  if  they  could.  I  had  heard  of  some  threats  being  made, 
but  none  of  an  attack  upon  the  prisoners  whilst  in  jail.  These 
threats  seemed  to  be  made  by  individuals  not  acting  in  concert. 
They  were  no  more  than  the  bluster  which  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, and  furnished  no  indication  of  numbers  combining  for 
this  or  any  other  purpose. 

I  must  here  be  permitted  to  say,  also,  that  frequent  appeals 
had  been  made  to  me  to  make  a  clean  and  thorough  work  of 
the  matter,  by  exterminating  the  Mormons,  or  expelling  them 
from"  the  State.  An  opinion  seemed  generally  to  prevail,  that 
the  sanction  of  executive  authority  would  legalize  the  act ;  and 
all  persons  of  any  influence,  authority,  or  note,  who  conversed 
with  me  on  the  subject,  frequently  and  repeatedly  stated  their 
total  unwillingness  to  act  without  my  direction,  or  in  any  mode 
except  according  to  law. 

This  was  a  circumstance  well  calculated  to  conceal  from  me 
the  secret  machinations  on  foot.  I  had  constantly  contended 
against  violent  measures,  and  so  had  the  brigadier-general  in 
command ;  and  I  am  convinced  that  unusual  pains  were  taken 
to  conceal  from  both  of  us  the  secret  measures  resolved  upon. 
It  has  been  said,  however,  that  some  person  named  Williams,  in 
a  public  speech  at  Carthage,  called  for  volunteers  to  murder  the 
Smiths ;  and  that  I  ought  to  have  had  him  arrested.  Whether 
such  a  speech  was  really  made  or  not,  is  yet  unknown  to  me. 

Having  ordered  the  guard,  and  left  General  Deming  in  com- 
mand in  Carthage,  and  discharged  the  residue  of  the  militia,  I 
immediately  departed  for  Nauvoo,  eighteen  miles  distant,  ac- 
companied by  Col.  Buckmaster,  Quartermaster-General,  and 
Capt.  Dunn's  company  of  dragoons. 

After  we  had  proceeded  four  miles,  Colonel  Buckmaster  inti- 
mated to  me  a  suspicion  that  an  attack  would  be  made  upon  the 
jail.  He  stated  the  matter  as  a  mere  suspicion,  arising  from 
having  seen  two  persons  converse  together  at  Carthage  with 

15* 


346  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

some  air  of  mystery.  I  myself  entertained  no  suspicion  of 
such  an  attack ;  at  any  rate,  none  before  the  next  day  in  the  af- 
ternoon ;  because  it  was  notorious  that  we  had  departed  from 
Carthage  with  the  declared  intention  of  being  absent  at  least 
two  days.  I  could  not  believe  that  any  person  would  attack 
the  jail  whilst  we  were  hi  Nauvoo,  and  thereby  expose  my  life 
and  the  life  of  my  companions  to  the  sudden  vengeance  of  the 
Mormons,  upon  hearing  of  the  death  of  their  leaders.  Never- 
theless, acting  upon  the  principle  of  providing  against  mere  pos- 
sibilities, I  sent  back  one  of  the  company  with  a  special  order 
to  Capt.  Smith  to  guard  the  jail  strictly,  and  at  the  peril  of  his 
life,  until  my  return. 

We  proceeded  on  our  journey  four  miles  further.  By  this 
time  I  had  convinced  myself  that  no  attack  would  be  made  on 
the  jail  that  day  or  night.  I  supposed  that  a  regard  for  my 
safety  and  the  safety  of  my  companions  would  prevent  an  at- 
tack until  those  to  be  engaged  in  it  could  be  assured  of  our  de- 
parture from  Nauvoo.  I  still  think  that  this  ought  to  have  ap- 
peared to  me  to  be  a  reasonable  supposition. 

1  therefore  determined  at  this  point  to  omit  making  the 
search  for  counterfeit  money  at  Nauvoo,  and  defer  an  examina- 
tion of  all  the  other  abominations  charged  on  that  people,  in  or- 
der to  return  to  Carthage  that  same  night,  that  I  might  be  on 
the  ground  in  person,  in  time  to  prevent  an  attack  upon  the  jail, 
if  any  had  been  meditated.  To  this  end  we  called  a  halt ;  the 
baggage  wagons  were  ordered  to  remain  where  they  were  until 
towards  evening,  and  then  return  to  Carthage. 

Having  made  these  arrangements  we  proceeded  on  our  march 
and  arrived  at  Nauvoo  about  four  o'clock  of  the  afternoon  of 
the  27th  day  of  June.  As  soon  as  notice  could  be  given,  a 
crowd  of  the  citizens  assembled  to  hear  an  address  which  I  pro- 
posed to  deliver  to  them.  The  number  present  has  been  vari- 
ously estimated  from  one  to  five  thousand. 

In  this  address  I  stated  to  them  how,  and  in  what,  their  fuuc- 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  347 

tionaries  had  violated  the  laws.  Also,  the  many  scandalous  re- 
ports in  circulation  against  them,  and  that  these  reports,  whether 
true  or  false,  were  generally  believed  by  the  people.  I  dis- 
tinctly stated  to  them  the  amount  of  hatred  and  prejudice  which 
prevailed  everywhere  against  them,  and  the  causes  of  it,  at 
length. 

I  also  told  them  plainly  and  emphatically,  that  if  any  ven- 
geance should  be  attempted  openly  or  secretly  against  the  per- 
sons or  property  of  the  citizens  who  had  taken  part  against  their 
leaders,  that  the  public  hatred  and  excitement  was  such,  that 
thousands  would  assemble  for  the  total  destruction  of  their  city 
and  the  extermination  of  their  people ;  and  that  no  power  in 
the  State  would  be  able  to  prevent  it.  During  this  address 
some  impatience  and  resentment  were  manifested  by  the  Mor- 
mons, at  the  recital  of  the  various  reports  enumerated  concern- 
ing them  ;  which  they  strenuously  and  indignantly  denied  to  be 
true.  They  claimed  to  be  a  law-abiding  people,  and  insisted 
that  as  they  looked  to  the  law  alone  for  their  protection,  so 
were  they  careful  themselves  to  observe  its  provisions.  Upon 
the  conclusion  of  this  address,  I  proposed  to  take  a  vote  on  the 
question,  whether  they  would  strictly  observe  the  laws,  even  in 
opposition  to  their  prophet  and  leaders.  The  vote  was  unani- 
mous in  favor  of  this  proposition. 

The  anti-Mormons  contended  that  such  a  vote  from  the  Mor- 
mons signified  nothing ;  and  truly  the  subsequent  history  of 
that  people  showed  clearly  that  they  were  loudest  in  their  pro- 
fessions of  attachment  to  the  law  whenever  they  were  guilty  of 
the  greatest  extravagances ;  and  in  fact,  that  they  were  so  ignor- 
ant and  stupid  about  matters  of  law,  that  they  had  no  means  o"f 
judging  of  the  legality  of  their  conduct,  only  as  they  were  in- 
structed by  their  spiritual  leaders. 

A  short  time  before  sundown  we  departed  on  our  return  to 
Carthage.  When  we  had  proceeded  two  miles  we  met  two  in- 
dividuals, one  of  them  a  Mormon,  who  informed  us  that  the 


348  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Smiths  had  been  assassinated  in  jail,  about  five  or  six  o'clock 
of  that  day.  The  intelligence  seemed  to  strike  every  one  with 
a  kind  of  dumbness.  As  to  myself,  it  was  perfectly  astound- 
ing ;  and  I  anticipated  the  very  worst  consequences  from  it. 
The  Mormons  had  been  represented  to  me  as  a  lawless,  infatu- 
ated, and  fanatical  people,  not  governed  by  the  ordinary  mo- 
tives which  influence  the  rest  of  mankind.  If  so,  most  likely  an 
exterminating  war  would  ensue,  and  the  whole  land  would  be 
covered  with  desolation. 

Acting  upon  this  supposition,  it  was  my  duty  to  provide  as 
well  as  I  could  for  the  event.  I  therefore  ordered  the  two  mes- 
sengers into  custody,  and  to  be  returned  with  us  to  Carthage. 
This  was  done  to  get  time  to  make  such  arragements  as  could 
be  made,  and  to  prevent  any  sudden  explosion  of  Mormon  ex- 
citement before  they  could  be  written  to  by  their  friends  at 
Carthage.  I  also  despatched  messengers  to  Warsaw,  to  advise 
the  citizens  of  the  event.  But  the  people  there  knew  all  about 
the  matter  before  my  messengers  arrived.  They,  like  myself, 
anticipated  a  general  attack  all  over  the  country.  The  women 
and  children  were  removed  across  the  river ;  and  a  committee 
was  despatched  that  night  to  Quincy  for  assistance.  The  next 
morning  by  daylight  the  ringing  of  the  bells  in  the  city  of 
Quincy,  announced  a  public  meeting.  The  people  assembled 
in  great  numbers  at  an  early  hour.  The  Warsaw  committee 
stated  to  the  meeting  that  a  party  of  Mormons  had  attempted 
to  rescue  the  Smiths  out  of  jail ;  that  a  party  of  Missourians 
and  others,  had  killed  the  prisoners  to  prevent  their  escape ; 
that  the  governor  and  his  party  were  at  Nauvoo  at  the  time 
when  intelligence  of  the  fact  was  brought  there ;  that  they  had 
been  attacked  by  the  Nauvoo  legion,  and  had  retreated  to  a 
house  where  they  were  then  closely  besieged.  That  the  gover- 
nor had  sent  out  word  that  he  could  maintain  his  position  for 
two  days,  and  would  be  certain  to  be  massacred  if  assistance 
did  not  arrive  by  the  end  of  that  time.  It  is  unnecessary  to 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  349 

say  that  this  entire  story  was  a  fabrication.  It  was  of  a  piece 
with  the  other  reports  put  into  circulation  by  the  anti-Mor- 
mon party,  to  influence  the  public  mind  and  call  the  people  to 
their  assistance.  The  effect  of  it,  however,  was  that  by  ten 
o'clock  on  the  28th  of  June,  between  two  and  three  hundred 
men  from  Quincy,  under  the  command  of  Major  Flood,  em- 
barked on  board  of  a  steamboat  for  Nauvoo,  to  assist  in  rais- 
ing the  siege,  as  they  honestly  believed. 

As  for  myself,  I  was  well  convinced  that  those,  whoever  they 
were,  who  assassinated  the  Smiths,  meditated  in  turn  my  assas- 
sination by  the  Mormons.  The  very  circumstances  of  the  case 
fully  corroborated  the  information  which  I  afterwards  received, 
that  upon  consultation  of  the  assassins  it  was  agreed  amongst 
them  that  the  murder  must  be  committed  whilst  the  governor 
was  at  Nauvoo ;  that  the  Mormons  would  naturally  supposf^ 
that  he  had  planned  it ;  and  that  in  the  first  outpouring  of  their 
indignation,  they  would  assassinate  him,  by  way  of  retaliation. 
And  that  thus  they  would  get  clear  of  the  Smiths  and  the  gov- 
ernor, all  at  once.  They  also  supposed,  that  if  they  could  so 
contrive  the  matter  as  to  have  the  governor  of  the  State  assas- 
sinated by  the  Mormons,  the  public  excitement  would  be  greatly 
increased  against  that  people,  and  would  result  in  their  expul- 
sion from  the  State  at  least. 

Upon  hearing  of  the  assassination  of  the  Smiths,  I  was  sensi- 
ble that  my  command  was  at  an  end ;  that  my  destruction  was 
meditated  as  well  as  that  of  the  Mormons ;  and  that  I  could  not 
reasonably  confide  longer  in  the  one  party  or  in  the  other. 

The  question  then  arose,  what  would  be  proper  to  be  done. 
A  war  was  expected  by  everybody.  I  was  desirous  of  preserv- 
ing the  peace.  I  could  not  put  myself  at  the  head  of  the  Mor- 
mon force  with  any  kind  of  propriety,  and  without  exciting 
greater  odium  against  them  than  already  existed.  I  could  not 
put  myself  at  the  head  of  the  anti-Mormon  party,  because  they 
had  justly  forfeited  my  confidence,  and  my  command  over  them 


350  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

was  put  an  end  to  by  mutiny  and  treachery.  I  could  not  put 
myself  at  the  head  of  either  of  these  forces,  because  both  of 
them  in  turn  had  violated  the  law ;  and,  as  I  then  believed, 
meditated  further  aggression.  It  appeared  to  me  that  if  a  war 
ensued,  I  ought  to  have  a  force  in  which  I  could  confide,  and 
that  I  ought  to  establish  my  head-quarters  at  a  place  where  I 
could  learn  the  truth  as  to  what  was  going  on. 

For  these  reasons,  I  determined  to  proceed  to  Quincy,  a  place 
favorably  situated  for  receiving  the  earliest  intelligence,  for 
issuing  orders  to  raise  an  army  if  necessary,  and  for  providing 
supplies  for  its  subsistence.  But  first,  I  determined  to  return 
back  to  Carthage  and  make  such  arrangements  as  could  be 
made  for  the  pacification  and  defence  of  the  country.  When  I 
arrived  there,  about  ten  o'clock  at  night,  I  found  that  great 
consternation  prevailed.  Many  of  the  citizens  had  departed 
with  their  families,  and  others  were  preparing  to  go.  As  the 
country  was  utterly  defenceless,  this  seemed  to  me  to  be  a 
proper  precaution.  One  company  of  the  guard  stationed  by 
me  to  guard  the  jail,  had  disbanded  and  gone  home  before  the 
jail  was  attacked ;  and  many  of  the  Carthage  Grays  departed 
soon  afterwards. 

Gen.  Deming,  who  was  absent  in  the  country  during  the 
murder,  had  returned ;  he  volunteered  to  remain  in  command 
of  a  few  men,  with  orders  to  guard  the  town,  observe  the  prog- 
ress of  events,  and  to  retreat  if  menaced  by  a  superior  force. 

Here  also  I  found  Dr.  Richards  and  John  Taylor,  two  of  the 
principal  Mormon  leaders,  who  had  been  in  the  jail  at  the  time 
of  the  attack,  and  who  voluntarily  addressed  a  most  pacific  ex- 
hortation to  their  fellow-citizens,  which  was  the  first  intelligence 
of  the  murder  which  was  received  at  Nauvoo.  I  think  it  very 
probable  that  the  subsequent  good  conduct  of  the  Mormons  is 
attributable  to  the  arrest  of  the  messengers,  and  to  the  influ- 
ence of  this  letter. 

Having  made  these  arrangements,  I  departed  for  Quincy. 


HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS.  351 

On  my  road  thither,  I  heard  of  a  body  of  militia  marching 
from  Schuyler,  and  another  from  Brown.  It  appears  that  or- 
ders had  been  sent  out  in  my  name,  but  without  my  knowledge, 
for  the  militia  of  Schuyler  county.  I  immediately  counter- 
manded their  march,  and  they  returned  to  their  homes.  When 
I  arrived  at  Columbus,  I  found  that  Capt.  Jonas  had  raised  a 
company  of  one  hundred  men,  who  were  just  ready  to  march. 
By  my  advice  they  postponed  their  march,  to  await  further 
orders.  1  arrived  at  Quincy  on  the  morning  of  the  29th  of 
June,  about  eight  o'clock,  and  immediately  issued  orders,  pro- 
visionally, for  raising  an  imposing  force,  when  it  should  seem 
to  be  necessary. 

I  remained  at  Quincy  for  about  one  month,  during  which 
time  a  committee  from  Warsaw  waited  on  me,  with  a  written 
request  that  I  would  expel  the  Mormons  from  the  State.  It 
seemed  that  it  never  occurred  to  these  gentlemen  that  I  had  no 
power  to  exile  a  citizen ;  but  they  insisted  that  if  this  were  not 
done,  their  party  would  abandon  the  State.  This  requisition 
was  refused  of  course. 

During  this  time  also,  with  the  view  of  saving  expense,  keep- 
ing the  peace,  and  having  a  force  which  would  be  removed  from 
the  prejudices  in  the  country,  I  made  application  to  the  United 
States  for  five  hundred  men  of  the  regular  army,  to  be  stationed 
for  a  time  in  Hancock  county,  which  was  subsequently  refused. 

During  this  time  also,  I  had  secret  agents  amongst  all  parties, 
observing  their  movements ;  and  was  accurately  informed  of 
everything  which  was  meditated  on  both  sides.  It  appeared 
that  the  anti-Mormon  party  had  not  relinquished  their  hostility 
to  the  Mormons,  nor  their  determination  to  expel  them,  but 
had  deferred  further  operations  until  the  fall  season,  after  they 
had  finished  their  summer's  work  on  their  farms. 

When  I  first  went  to  Carthage,  and  during  all  this  difficult 
business,  no  public  officer  ever  acted  from  purer  or  more  patri- 
otic intentions  than  I  did.  I  was  perfectly  conscious  of  the  ut- 


352  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

most  integrity  in  all  my  actions,  and  felt  lifted  up  far  above  all 
mere  party  considerations.  But  I  had  scarcely  arrived  at  the 
scene  of  action  before  the  whig  press  commenced  the  most  vio- 
lent abuse,  and  attributed  to  me  the  basest  motives.  It  was  al- 
leged in  the  Sangamon  Journal,  and  repeated  in  the  other  whig 
newspapers,  that  the  governor  had  merely  gone  over  to  cement 
an  alliance  with  the  Mormons ;  that  the  leaders  would  not  be 
brought  to  punishment,  but  that  a  full  privilege  would  be  ac- 
corded to  them  to  commit  crimes  of  every  hue  and  grade,  in 
return  for  their  support  of  the  democratic  party.  I  mention 
this,  not  by  way  of  complaint,  for  it  is  only  the  privilege  of  the 
minority  to  complain,  but  for  its  influence  upon  the  people. 

I  observed  that  I  was  narrowly  watched  in  all  my  proceedings 
by  my  whig  fellow-citizens,  and  was  suspected  of  an  intention 
to  favor  the  Mormons.  I  felt  that  I  did  not  possess  the  confi- 
dence of  the  men  I  commanded,  and  that  they  had  been  induced 
to  withhold  it  by  the  promulgation  of  the  most  abominable 
falsehoods.  I  felt  the  necessity  of  possessing  their  confidence, 
in  order  to  give  vigor  to  my  action ;  and  exerted  myself  in 
every  way  to  obtain  it,  so  that  I  could  control  the  excited  mul- 
titude who  were  under  my  command.  I  succeeded  better  for  a 
time  than  could  have  been  expected  ;  but  who  can  control  the 
action  of  a  mob  without  possessing  their  entire  confidence  1  It 
is  true,  also,  that  some  unprincipled  democrats  all  the  time  ap- 
peared to  be  very  busy  on  the  side  of  the  Mormons,  and  this 
circumstance  was  well  calculated  to  increase  suspicion  of  every 
one  who  had  the  name  of  democrat. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

Account  of  the  assassination  of  the  Smiths— Done  by  the  forces  at  Warsaw— Treachery 
of  the  Carthage  Greys— Franklin  A.  Worrell— Attack  on  the  Jail— Murder  of  Joe 
and  Hirain  Smith— Character  of  Joe  Smith— Character  of  the  leading  Mormons- 
Character  of  the  Mormon  people— Affairs  of  the  Church— Sidney  Rigdon's  prophe- 
cies— The  twelve  apostles — Triumph  of  the  twelve — Increase  of  Mormonism — Causes 
of  it — Governor  Ford  and  Herod  and  Pilate — The  Mormons  quit  preaching  to  the 
Gentiles — Character  of  their  preaching— Increased  hostility  of  the  "Saints" — Deter- 
mination to  expel  the  Mormons — Both  parties  ready  to  set  aside  free  government — 
Natural  inclination  to  despotism— Presidential  election  of  1844 — Infatuation  of  the 
people — State  election — Colonel. Taylor's  visit  to  the  Mormons  induces  them  to  vote 
the  democratic  ticket — The  fault  laid  on  the  Governor — Fresh  determination  to  ex- 
pel the  Mormons — Conduct  of  the  whig  press — Pusillanimity  of  politicians — General 
Hardin — Colonel  Baker — Colonel  Weatherford — Colonel  Merriman — Anti-Mormon 
•wolf-hunt — Military  expedition  to  Hancock — Militia  infected  with  anti-Mormonism 
— Surrender  of  two  persons  accused  of  the  murder— Terms  of  surrender  arranged 
by  Colonel  Baker— Incompetency  of  a  militia  force  in  such  cases— Prosecution  of 
the  murderers — Riotous  trials — Constitution  in  relation  to  changes  of  venue — Trial 
of  the  Mormons  for  destroying  the  press— Both  parties  get  a  jury  to  suit  them— All 
acquitted — Anarchy  in  Hancock. 

IT  was  many  days  after  the  assassination  of  the  Smiths  be- 
fore the  circumstances  of  the  murder  fully  became  known.  It 
then  appeared  that,  agreeably  to  previous  orders,  the  posse  at 
Warsaw  had  marched  on  the  morning  of  the  27th  of  June  in 
the  direction  of  Golden's  Point,  with  a  view  to  join  the  force 
from  Carthage,  the  whole  body  then  to  be  marched  into  Nau- 
voo.  But  by  the  time  they  had  gone  eight  miles,  they  were 
met  by  the  order  to  disband ;  and  learning  at  the  same  time 
that  the  governor  was  absent  at  Nauvoo,  about  two  hundred  of 
these  men,  many  of  them  being  disguised  by  blacking  their^ 
faces  with  powder  and  mud,  hastened  immediately  to  Carthage. 
There  they  encamped,  at  some  distance  from  the  village,  and 
soon  learned  that  one  of  the  companies  left  as  a  guard  had  dis- 


354  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

banded  and  returned  to  their  homes ;  the  other  company,  the 
Carthage  Greys,  was  stationed  by  the  captain  in  the  public 
square,  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  the  jail.  Whilst  eight 
men  were  detailed  by  him,  under  the  command  of  Sergeant 
Franklin  A.  Worrell,  to  guard  the  prisoners.  A  communica- 
tion was  soon  established  between  the  conspirators  and  the  com- 
pany ;  and  it  was  arranged  that  the  guard  should  have  their 
guns  charged  with  blank  cartridges,  and  fire  at  the  assailants 
when  they  attempted  to  enter  the  jail.  Gen.  Deming,  who 
was  left  in  command,  being  deserted  by  some  of  his  troops,  and 
perceiving  the  arrangement  with  the  others,  and  having  no  force 
upon  which  he  could  rely,  for  fear  of  his  life  retired  from  the 
village.  The  conspirators  came  up,  jumped  the  slight  fence 
around  the  jail,  were  fired  upon  by  the  guard,  which,  according 
to  arrangement,  was  overpowered  immediately,  and  the  assail- 
ants entered  the  prison,  to  the  door  of  the  room  where  the  two 
prisoners  were  confined,  with  two  of  their  friends,  who  volunta- 
rily bore  them  company.  An  attempt  was  made  to  break  open 
the  door  ;  but  Joe  Smith  being  armed  with  a  six-barrelled  pis- 
tol, furnished  by  his  friends,  fired  several  times  as  the  door  was 
bursted  open,  and  wounded  three  of  the  assailants.  At  the\ 
same  time  several  shots  were  fired  into  the  room,  by  some  of 
which  John  Taylor  received  four  wounds,  and  Hiram  Smith 
was  instantly  killed.  Joe  Smith  now  attempted  to  escape  by 
jumping  out  of  the  second-story  window ;  but  the  fall  so  stun- 
ned him  that  he  was  unable  to  rise  ;  and  being  placed  in  a  sit- 
ting posture  by  the  conspirators  below,  they  despatched  him 
with  four  balls  shot  through  his  body. 

Thus  fell  Joe  Smith,  the  most  successful  impostor  in  modern 
times ;  a  man  who,  though  ignorant  and  coarse,  had  some  great 
^natural  parts,  which  fitted  him  for  temporary  success,  but  which 
were  so  obscured  and  counteracted  by  the  inherent  corruption 
and  vices  of  his  nature,  that  he  never  could  succeed  in  establish- 
ing a  system  of  policy  which  looked  to  permanent  success  in 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  355 

the  future.  His  lusts,  his  love  of  money  and  power,  always 
set  him  to  studying  present  gratification  and  convenience,  rather 
than  the  remote  consequences  of  his  plans.  It  seems  that  no 
power  of  intellect  can  save  a  corrupt  man  from  this  error.  The 
strong  cravings  of  the  animal  nature  will  never  give  fair  play 
to  a  fine  understanding,  the  judgment  is  never  allowed  to  choose 
that  good  which  is  far  away,  in  preference  to  enticing  evil  near 
at  hand.  And  this  may  be  considered  a  wise  ordinance  of 
Providence,  by  which  the  counsels  of  talented  but  corrupt  men, 
are  defeated  in  the  very  act  which  promised  success. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  pretended  prophet  practiced 
the  tricks  of  a  common  impostor;  that  he  was  a  dark  and 
gloomy  person,  with  a  long  beard,  a  grave  and  severe  aspect, 
and  a  reserved  and  saintly  carriage  of  his  person ;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  was  full  of  levity,  even  to  boyism  romping ;  dressed 
like  a  dandy,  and  at  times  drank  like  a  sailor  and  swore  like  a 
pirate.  He  could,  as  occasion  required,  be  exceedingly  meek 
in  his  deportment ;  and  then  again  rough  and  boisterous  as  a 
highway  robber ;  being  always  able  to  satisfy  his  followers  of 
the  propriety  of  his  conduct.  He  always  quailed  before  power, 
and  was  arrogant  to  weakness.  At  times  he  could  put  on  the 
air  of  a  penitent,  as  if  feeling  the  deepest  humiliation  for  his 
sins,  and  suffering  unutterable  anguish,  and  indulging  in  the 
most  gloomy  forebodings  of  eternal  woe.  At  such  times  he 
would  call  for  the  prayers  of  the  brethren  in  his  behalf,  with  a 
wild  and  fearful  energy  and  earnestness.  He  was  full  six  feet 
high,  strongly  built,  and  uncommonly  well  muscled.  No  doubt 
he  was  as  much  indebted  for  his  influence  over  an  ignorant  peo- 
ple, to  the  superiority  of  his  physical  vigor,  as  to  his  greater 
cunning  and  intellect. 

His  followers  were  divided  into  the  leaders  and  the  led ;  the 
first  division  embraced  a  numerous  class  of  broken  down,  un- 
principled men  of  talents,  to  be  found  in  every  country,  who, 
bankrupt  in  character  and  fortune,  had  nothing  to  lose  by  de- 


356  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

serting  the  known  religions,  and  carving  out  a  new  one  of  their 
own.  They  were  mostly  infidels,  who  holding  all  religions  in 
derision,  believed  that  they  had  as  good  a  right  as  Christ  or 
Mahomet,  or  any  of  the  founders  of  former  systems,  to  create 
one  for  themselves ;  and  if  they  could  impose  it  upon  mankind, 
to  live  upon  the  labor  of  their  dupes.  Those  of  the  second 
division,  were  the  credulous  wondering  part  of  men,  whose 
easy  belief  and  admiring  natures,  are  always  the  victims  of 
novelty,  in  whatever  shape  it  may  come,  who  have  a  capacity 
to  believe  any  strange  and  wonderful  matter,  if  it  only  be  new, 
whilst  the  wonders  of  former  ages  command  neither  faith  nor 
reverence ;  they  were  men  of  feeble  purposes,  readily  subjected 
to  the  will  of  the  strong,  giving  themselves  up  entirely  to  the 
direction  of  their  leaders ;  and  this  accounts  for  the  very  great 
influence  of  those  leaders  in  controlling  them.  In  other  respects 
some  of  the  Mormons  were  abandoned  rogues,  who  had  taken 
shelter  in  Nauvoo,  as  a  convenient  place  for  the  head-quarters 
of  their  villany ;  and  others  were  good,  honest,  industrious  peo- 
ple, who  were  the  sincere  victims  of  an  artful  delusion.  Such 
as  these  were  more  the  proper  objects  of  pity  than  persecution. 
With  them,  their  religious  belief  was  a  kind  of  insanity ;  and 
certainly  no  greater  calamity  can  befall  a  human  being,  than  to 
have  a  mind  so  constituted  as  to  be  made  the  sincere  dupe  of  a 
religious  imposture. 

The  more  polished  portion  of  the  Mormons  were  a  merry 
set  of  fellows,  fond  of  music  and  dancing,  dress  and  gay  assem- 
blies. They  had  their  regular  dancing  parties  of  gentlemen 
and  ladies,  and  were  by  no  means  exclusive  in  admitting  any 
one  to  them  on  the  score  of  character.  It  is  a  notorious  fact, 
that  a  desperado  by  the  name  of  Rockwell,  having  attracted 
the  affections  of  a  pretty  woman,  the  wife  of  a  Mormon  mer- 
chant, took  her  from  her  husband  by  force  of  arms,  to  live  with 
him  in  adultery.  But  whilst  she  was  so  living  notoriously  in 
adultery  with  a  Mormon  bully,  in  the  same  city  with  her  hus- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  357 

band,  she  was  freely  admitted  to  the  best  society  in  the  place, 
to  all  the  gay  assemblies,  where  she  and  her  husband  frequently 
met  in  the  same  dance. 

The  world  now  indulged  in  various  conjectures  as  to  the  fur- 
ther  progress  of  the  Mormon  religion.  By  some  persons  it  was 
believed  that  it  would  perish  and  die  away  with  its  founder. 
But  upon  the  principle  that  "  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the 
seed  of  the  church,"  there  was  now  really  more  cause  than  ever 
to  predict  its  success.  The  murder  of  the  Smiths,  instead  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  delusion  of  the  Mormons  and  dispersing 
them,  as  many  believed  it  would,  only  bound  them  together 
closer  than  ever,  gave  them  new  confidence  in  their  faith  and 
an  increased  fanaticism.  The  Mormon  church  had  been  organ- 
ized with  a  first  presidency,  composed  of  Joe  and  Hiram  Smith 
and  Sidney  Rigdon,  and  twelve  apostles  of  the  prophet,  repre- 
senting the  apostles  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  twelve  apostles  were 
now  absent,  and  until  they  could  be  called  together  the  minds 
of  the  "  saints  "  were  unsettled,  as  to  the  future  government  of 
the  church.  Eevelations  were  published  that  the  prophet,  in 
imitation  of  the  Saviour,  was  to  rise  again  from  the  dead.  Many 
were  looking  in  gaping  wonderment  for  the  fulfilment  of  this 
revelation,  and  some  reported  that  they  had  already  seen  him, 
attended  by  a  celestial  army  coursing  the  air  on  a  great  white 
horse.  Rigdon,  as  the  only  remaining  member  of  the  first 
presidency,  claimed  the  government  of  the  church,  as  being 
successor  to  the  prophet.  When  the  twelve  apostles  returned 
from  foreign  parts,  a  fierce  struggle  for  power  ensued  between 
them  and  Rigdon.  Rigdon  fortified  his  pretensions  by  alleging 
the  will  of  the  prophet  in  his  favor,  and  pretending  to  have 
several  new  revelations  from  heaven,  amongst  which  was  one 
of  a  very  impolitic  nature.  This  was  to  the  effect,  that  all  the 
wealthy  Mormons  were  to  break  up  their  residence  at  Nauvoo, 
and  follow  him  to  Pittsburg.  This  revelation  put  both  the  rich 
and  the  poor  against  him.  The  rich,  because  they  did  not  want 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

to  leave  their  property ;  and  the  poor,  because  they  would  not 
be  deserted  by  the  wealthy.  This  was  fatal  to  the  ambition  of 
Eigdon  ;  and  the  Mormons  tired  of  the  despotism  of  a  one-man 
government,  were  now  willing  to  decide  in  favor  of  the  apos- 
tles. Rigdon  was  expelled  from  the  church  as  being  a  false 
prophet,  and  left  the  field  with  a  few  followers,  to  establish  a 
little  delusion  of  his  own,  near  Pittsburg ;  leaving  the  govern- 
ment of  the  main  church  in  the  hands  of  the  apostles,  with 
Brigham  Young,  a  cunning  but  vulgar  man,  at  their  head,  occu- 
pying the  place  of  Peter  in  the  Christian  hierarchy. 

Missionaries  were  despatched  to  all  parts  to  preach  in  the 
name  of  the  "  martyred  Joseph ;"  and  the  Mormon  religion 
thrived  more  than  ever.  For  awhile  it  was  doubtful  whether 
the  reign  of  the  military  saints  in  Nauvoo  would  not  in  course 
of  time  supplant  the  meek  and  lowly  system  of  Christ.  There 
were  many  things  to  favor  their  success.  The  different  Chris- 
tian sects  had  lost  much  of  the  fiery  energy  by  which  at  first 
they  were  animated.  They  had  attained  to  a  more  subdued, 
sober,  learned,  and  intellectual  religion.  But  there  is  at  all 
times  a  large  class  of  mankind  who  will  never  be  satisfied  with 
anything  in  devotion,  short  of  a  heated  and  wild  fanaticism. 
The  Mormons  were  the  greatest  zealots,  the  most  confident  in 
their  faith,  and  filled  with  a  wilder,  fiercer,  and  more  enterpris- 
ing enthusiasm,  than  any  sect  on  the  continent  of  America ;  their 
religion  gave  promise  of  more  temporal  and  spiritual  advan- 
tages for  less  labor,  and  with  less  personal  sacrifice  of  passion, 
lust,  prejudice,  malice,  hatred,  and  ill-will,  than  any  other  per- 
haps in  the  whole  world.  Their  missionaries  abroad,  to  the 
number  of  two  or  three  thousand,  were  most  earnest  and  indefati- 
gable in  their  efforts  to  make  converts ;  compassing  sea  and 
land  to  make  one  proselyte.  When  abroad,  they  first  preached 
doctrines  somewhat  like  those  of  the  Campbellites ;  Sidney  Rig- 
don, the  inventor  of  the  system,  having  once  been  a  Campbell- 
ite  preacher ;  and  when  they  had  made  a  favorable  impression, 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  359 

they  began  in  far-off  allusions  to  open  up  their  mysteries,  and 
to  reveal  to  their  disciples  that  a  perfect  "  fulness  of  the  gospel" 
must  be  expected.  This  "  fulness  of  the  gospel "  was  looked 
for  by  the  dreamy  and  wondering  disciple,  as  an  indefinite 
something  not  yet  to  be  comprehended,  but  which  was  essen- 
tial to  complete  happiness  and  salvation.  He  was  then  told 
that  God  required  him  to  remove  to  the  place  of  gathering, 
where  alone  this  sublime  "  fulness  of  the  gospel "  could  be  fully 
revealed,  and  completely  enjoyed.  When  he  arrived  at  the 
place  of  gathering,  he  was  fortified  in  the  new  faith  by  being 
withdrawn  from  all  other  influences  ;  and  by  seeing  and  hearing 
nothing  but  Mormons  and  Mormonism ;  and  by  association 
with  those  only  who  never  doubted  any  of  the  Mormon  dogmas. 
Now  the  "  fulness  of  the  gospel "  could  be  safely  made  known. 
If  it  required  him  to  submit  to  the  most  intolerable  despotism ; 
if  it  tolerated  and  encouraged  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  and  a  pru- 
rality  of  wives ;  if  it  claimed  all  the  world  for  the  saints  ;  uni- 
versal dominion  for  the  Mormon  leaders ;  if  it  sanctioned  mur- 
der, robbery,  perjury,  and  larceny,  at  the  command  of  their 
priests,  no  one  could  now  doubt  but  that  this  was  the  "  fulness 
of  the  gospel,"  the  liberty  of  the  saints,  with  which  Christ  had 
made  them  free. 

The  Christian  world,  which  has  hitherto  regarded  Mormonism 
with  silent  contempt,  unhappily  may  yet  have  cause  to  fear  its 
rapid  increase.  Modern  society  is  full  of  material  for  such  a 
religion.  At  the  death  of  the  prophet,  fourteen  years  after  the 
first  Mormon  Church  was  organized,  the  Mormons  in  all  the 
world  numbered  about  two  hundred  thousand  souls  (one  half 
million  according  to  their  statistics)  ;  a  number  equal,  perhaps, 
to  the  number  of  Christians,  when  the  Christian  Church  was  of 
the  same  age.  It  is  to  be  feared  that,  in  course  of  a  century, 
some  gifted  man  like  Paul,  some  splendid  orator,  who  will  be 
able  by  his  eloquence  to  attract  crowds  of  the  thousands  who 
are  ever  ready  to  hear,  and  be  carried  away  by,  the  sounding 


360  HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

brass  and  tinkling  cymbal  of  sparkling  oratory,  may  command 
a  hearing,  may  succeed  in  breathing  a  new  life  into  this  modern 
Mahometanism,  and  make  the  name  of  the  martyred  Joseph 
ring  as  loud,  and  stir  the  souls  of  men  as  much,  as  the  mighty 
name  of  Christ  itself.  Sharon,  Palmyra,  Manchester,  Kirtland, 
Far  West,  Adamon  Diahmon,  Ramus,  Nauvoo,  and  the  Car- 
thage Jail,  may  become  holy  and  venerable  names,  places  of 
classic  interest,  in  another  age ;  like  Jerusalem,  the  Garden  of 
Gethsemane,  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  Mount  Calvary  to  the 
Christian,  and  Mecca  and  Medina  to  the  Turk.  And  in  that 
event,  the  author  of  this  history  feels  degraded  by  the  reflection, 
that  the  humble  governor  of  an  obscure  State,  who  would  other- 
wise be  forgotten  in  a  few  years,  stands  a  fair  chance,  like  Pilate 
and  Herod,  by  their  official  connection  with  the  true  religion, 
of  being  dragged  down  to  posterity  with  an  immortal  name, 
hitched  oja  to  the  memory  of  a  miserable  impostor.  There  may 
be  those  whose  ambition  would  lead  them  to  desire  an  immor- 
tal name  in  history,  even  in  those  humbling  terms.  I  am  not 
one  of  that  number. 

About  one  year  after  the  apostles  were  installed  into  power, 
they  abandoned  for  the  present  the  project  of  converting  the 
world  to  the  new  religion.  All  the  missionaries  and  members 
abroad  were  ordered  home  ;  it  was  announced  that  the  world 
had  rejected  the  gospel  by  the  murder  of  the  prophet  and  patri- 
arch, and  was  to  be  left  to  perish  in  its  skis.  In  the  meantime, 
both  before  and  after  this,  the  elders  at  Nauvoo  quit  preaching 
about  religion.  The  Mormons  came  from  every  part,  pouring 
into  the  city  ;  the  congregations  were  regularly  called  together 
for  worship,  but  instead  of  expounding  the  new  gospel,  the  zeal- 
ous and  infuriated  preachers  now  indulged  only  in  curses  and 
strains  of  abuse  of  the  Gentiles,  and  it  seemed  to  be  their  design 
to  fill  their  followers  with  the  greatest  amount  of  hatred  to  all 
mankind  excepting  the  "  saints."  A  sermon  was  no  more  than 
an  inflammatory  stump  speech,  relating  to  their  quarrels  with 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  361 

their  enemies,  and  ornamented  with  an  abundance  of  profanity. 
From  my  own  personal  knowledge  of  this  people,  I  can  say 
with  truth,  that  I  have  never  known  much  of  any  of  their  lead- 
ers who  was  not  addicted  to  profane  swearing.  No  other  kind 
of  discourses  than  these  were  heard  in  the  city.  Curses  upon 
their  enemies,  upon  the  country,  upon  government,  upon  all 
public  officers,  were  now  the  lessons  taught  by  the  elders,  to  in- 
flame their  people  with  the  highest  degree  of  spite  and  malice 
against  all  who  were  not  of  the  Mormon  church,  or  its  obse- 
quious tools.  The  reader  can  readily  imagine  how  a  city  of  fif- 
teen thousand  inhabitants  could  be  wrought  up  and  kept  in  a 
continual  rage  by  the  inflammatory  harangues  of  its  leaders. 

In  the  meantime,  the  anti-Mormons  were  not  idle ;  they  were 
more  than  ever  determined  to  expel  the  Mormons  ;  and  being 
passionately  inflamed  against  them,  they  made  many  applica- 
tions for  executive  assistance.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Mor- 
mons invoked  the  assistance  of  government  to  take  vengeance 
upon  the  murderers  of  the  Smiths.  The  anti-Mormons  asked 
the  governor  to  violate  the  constitution,  which  he  was  sworn  to 
support,  by  erecting  himself  into  a  military  despot  and  exiling 
the  Mormons.  The  Mormons,  on  their  part,  in  their  newspa- 
pers, invited  the  governor  to  assume  absolute  power,  by  taking 
a  summary  vengeance  upon  their  enemies,  by  shooting  fifty  or 
a  hundred  of  them,  without  judge  or  jury.  Both  parties  were 
thoroughly  disgusted  with  constitutional  provisions,  restraining 
them  from  the  summary  attainment  of  their  wishes  for  ven- 
geance ;  each  was  ready  to  submit  to  arbitrary  power,  to  the 
fiat  of  a  dictator,  to  make  me  a  king  for  the  time  being,  or  at 
least  that  I  might  exercise  the  power  of  a  king,  to  abolish  both 
the  forms  and  spirit  of  free  government,  if  the  despotism  to  be 
erected  upon  its  ruins  could  only  be  wielded  for  its  benefit,  and 
to  take  vengeance  on  its  enemies.  It  seems  that,  notwithstand- 
ing all  our  strong  professions  of  attachment  to  liberty,  there  is 
all  the  time  an  unconquerable  leaning  to  the  principles  of  mon- 

16 


362  HISTOEY  OP  ILLINOIS. 

archy  and  despotism,  whenever  the  forms,  the  delays,  and  the 
restraints  of  republican  government  fail  to  correct  great  evils. 
When  the  forms  of  government  in  the  United  States  were  first 
invented,  the  public  liberty  was  thought  to  be  the  great  object 
of  governmental  protection.  Our  ancestors  studied  to  prevent 
government  from  doing  harm,  by  depriving  it  of  power.  They 
would  not  trust  the  power  of  exiling  a  citizen  upon  any  terms ; 
or  of  taking  his  life,  without  a  fair  and  impartial  trial  in  the 
courts,  even  to  the  people  themselves,  much  less  to  their  gov- 
ernment. But  so  infatuated  were  these  parties,  so  deep  did  they 
feel  their  grievances,  that  both  of  them  were  enraged  in  their 
turn,  because  the  governor  firmly  adhered  to  his  oath  of  office  ; 
refusing  to  be  a  party  to  their  revolutionary  proceedings ;  to 
set  aside  the  government  of  the  country,  and  execute  summary 
vengeance  upon  one  or  the  other  of  them. 

Another  election, was  to  come  off  in  August,  1844,  for  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  and  for  the  legislature  ;  and  an  election  was 
pending  throughout  the  nation  for  a  President  of  the  United 
States.  The  war  of  party  was  never  more  fierce  and  terrible 
than  during  the  pendency  of  these  elections.  The  parties  in 
many  places  met  separately  almost  every  night ;  not  to  argue 
the  questions  in  dispute,  but  to  denounce,  ridicule,  abuse,  and 
belittle  each  other,  with  sarcasm,  clamor,  noise,  and  songs,  dur- 
ing which  nothing  could  be  heard  but  hallooing,  hurrahing,  and 
yelling,  and  then  to  disperse  through  town,  with  insulting  taunts 
and  yells  of  defiance  on  either  side. 

In  all  this  they  were  but  little  less  fanatical  and  frantic  on  the 
subject  of  politics,  than  were  the  Mormons  about  religion.  Such 
a  state  of  excitement  could  not  fail  to  operate  unfavorably  upon 
the  Mormon  question,  involved  as  it  was  in  the  questions  of 
party  politics,  by  the  former  votes  of  the  Mormons.  As  a 
means  of  allaying  the  excitement,  and  making  the  question 
more  manageable,  I  was  most  anxious  that  the  Mormons  should 
not  vote  at  this  election,  and  strongly  advised  them  against  do- 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  363 

ing  so.  But  Col.  E.  D.  Taylor  went  to  their  city  a  few  days 
before  the  election,  and  the  Mormons  being  ever  disposed  to 
follow  the  worst  advice  they  could  get,  were  induced  by  him 
and  others  to  vote  for  all  the  democratic  candidates.  Col.  Tay- 
lor found  them  very  hostile  to  the  governor,  and  on  that  account 
much  disposed  not  to  vote  at  this  election.  The  leading  whig 
anti-Mormons,  believing  that  I  had  an  influence  over  the  Mor- 
mons, for  the  purpose  of  destroying  it  had  assured  them  that 
the  governor  had  planned  and  been  favorable  to  the  murder  of 
their  prophet  and  patriarch.  The  Mormons  pretended  to  sus- 
pect that  the  governor  had  given  some  countenance  to  the  mur- 
der, or  at  least  had  neglected  to  take  the  proper  precautions  to 
prevent  it.  And  yet  it  is  strange  that  at  this  same  election, 
they  elected  Gen.  Deming  to  be  the  sheriff  of  the  county,  when 
they  knew  that  he  had  first  called  out  the  militia  against  them, 
had  concurred  with  me  in  all  the  measures  subsequently  adopted, 
had  been  left  in  command  at  Carthage  during  my  absence  at 
Nauvoo,  and  had  left  his  post  when  he  saw  that  he  had  no 
power  to  prevent  the  murders.  As  to  myself,  I  shared  the  fate 
of  all  men  hi  high  places,  who  favor  moderation,  who  see  that 
both  parties  in  the  frenzy  of  their  excitement  are  wrong — es- 
pousing the  cause  of  neither ;  which  fate  always  is  to  be  hated 
by  both  parties.  But  Col.  Taylor,  like  a  skilful  politician,  de- 
nied nothing,  but  gave  countenance  to  everything  the  Mormons 
said  of  the  governor ;  and  by  admitting  to  them  that  the  gov- 
ernor was  a  great  rascal ;  by  promising  them  the  support  of 
the  democratic  party,  an  assurance  he  was  not  authorized  to 
make,  but  which  they  were  foolish  enough  to  believe,  and  by  in- 
sisting that  the  governor  was  not  the  democratic  party,  he  over- 
came their  reluctance  to  vote.  Nevertheless,  for  mere  political 
effect,  without  a  shadow  of  justice,  the  whig  leaders  and  news- 
papers everywhere,  and  some  enemies  in  the  democratic  ranks, 
immediately  charged  this  vote  of  the  Mormons  to  the  governor's 
influence ;  and  this  charge  being  believed  by  many,  made  the 


364  HISTORY  or  ILLINOIS. 

anti-Mormon  party  more  famous  than  ever  in  favor  of  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Mormons.  In  the  course  of  the  fall  of  1844,  the  anti- 
Mormon  leaders  sent  printed  invitations  to  all  the  militia  cap- 
tains in  Hancock,  and  to  the  captains  of  militia  in  all  the  neigh- 
boring counties  in  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Missouri,  to  be  present 
with  their  companies  at  a  great  wolf  hunt  in  Hancock ;  and  it 
was  privately  announced  that  the  wolves  to  be  hunted  were  the 
Mormons  and  Jack  Mormons.  Preparations  were  made  for 
assembling  several  thousand  men,  with  provisions  for  six  days ; 
and  the  anti-Mormon  newspapers,  in  aid  of  the  movement,  com- 
menced anew  the  most  awful  accounts  of  thefts  and  robberies, 
and  meditated  outrages  by  the  Mormons.  The  whig  press  in 
every  part  of  the  United  States,  came  to  their  assistance.  The 
democratic  newspapers  and  leading  democrats,  who  had  received 
the  benefit  of  the  Mormon  votes  to  their  party,  quailed  under 
the  tempest,  leaving  no  organ  for  the  correction  of  public  opin- 
ion, either  at  home  or  abroad,  except  the  discredited  Mormon 
newspaper  at  Nauvoo.  But  very  few  of  my  prominent  demo- 
cratic friends  would  dare  to  come  up  to  the  assistance  of  their 
governor,  and  but  few  of  them  dared  openly  to  vindicate  his 
motives  in  endeavoring  to  keep  the  peace.  They  were  willing 
and  anxious  for  Mormon  votes  at  elections,  but  they  were  un- 
willing to  risk  their  popularity  with  the  people,  by  taking  a 
part  in  their  favor,  even  when  law  and  justice,  and  the  Consti- 
tution, were  all  on  their  side.  Such  being  the  odious  character 
of  the  Mormons,  the  hatred  of  the  common  people  against  them, 
and  such  being  the  pusillanimity  of  leading  men,  in  fearing  to 
encounter  it. 

In  this  state  of  the  case  I  applied  to  Brigadier  General  J.  J. 
Hardin,  of  the  State  militia,  and  to  Colonels  Baker  and  Merri- 
man,  all  whigs,  but  all  of  them  men  of  military  ambition,  and 
they,  together  with  Colonel  William  Weatherford,  a  democrat,* 

*  Of  the  officers  who  were  out  with  me  in  this  expedition,  General 
Hardin,  Colonels  Baker  and  Weatherford,  and  Major  Warren,  after- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  365 

with  my  own  exertions,  succeeded  in  raising  about  five  hundred 
volunteers  ;  and  thus  did  these  whigs,  that  which  my  own  politi- 
cal friends,  with  two  or  three  exceptions,  were  slow  to  do,  from 
a  sense  of  duty  and  gratitude. 

With  this  little  force  under  the  command  of  General  Hardin, 
I  arrived  in  Hancock  county  on  the  25th  of  October.  The 
malcontents  abandoned  their  design,  and  all  the  leaders  of  it 
fled  to  Missouri.  The  Carthage  Greys  fled  almost  in  a  body, 
carrying  their  arms  along  with  them.  During  our  stay  in  the 
county  the  anti-Mormons  thronged  into  the  camp,  and  conversed 
freely  with  the  men,  who  were  fast  infected  with  their  prejudices^ 
and  it  was  impossible  to  get  any  of  the  officers  to  aid  hi  ex- 
pelling them.  Colonels  Baker,  Merriman  and  Weatherford, 
volunteered  their  services  if  I  would  go  with  them,  to  cross 
with  a  force  into  Missouri,  to  capture  three  of  the  anti-Mormon 
leaders,  for  whose  arrest  writs  had  been  issued  for  the  murder 
of  the  Smiths.  To  this  I  assented,  and  procured  a  boat,  which 
was  sent  down  in  the  night,  and  secretly  landed  a  mile  above 

wards  greatly  distinguished  themselves  in  the  Mexican  war.  Major 
Warren  is  noticed  by  General  Taylor  in  his  despatches  to  the  war  de- 
partment, as  a  prudent  and  gallant  officer.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Weath- 
erford was  left  a  whole  day  with  a  few  companies  to  guard  the  main 
pass  at  Buena  Vista,  where  he  and  his  men  stood,  during  all  that  time, 
the  fire  of  the  Mexican  artillery,  without  being  allowed  to  advance  near 
enough  to  return  it.  Colonel  Baker,  after  the  fall  of  General  Shields, 
commanded  a'  brigade  of  two  Illinois  regiments  and  one  New  York  re- 
giment, in  storming  the  last  stronghold  of  the  Mexicans  at  the  battle 
of  Cerro  Gordo,  in  which  he  and  his  men  behaved  most  gallantly,  car- 
rying everything  before  them,  which  completed  the  entire  route  of  the 
Mexican  army.  General  Hardin  at  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  in  com- 
mand of  two  Illinois  regiments  in  conjunction  with  a  regiment  of  Ken- 
tucky volunteers,  made  a  most  gallant  charge  upon  a  large  body  of 
Mexican  infantry  and  lancers,  five  times  the  numbers  of  the  Americans, 
which  decided  the  victory  on  our  side ;  but  in  which  Hardin  and  many 
other  gallant  officers  and  men  lost  their  lives.  But  they  will  live  in 
the  affectionate  remembrance  of  their  countrymen,  to  the  latest  time. 


366  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Warsaw.  Our  little  force  arrived  at  that  place  about  noon ; 
that  night  we  were  to  cross  to  Missouri  at  Churchville,  and 
seize  the  accused  there  encamped  with  a  number  of  their 
friends ;  but  that  afternoon  Colonel  Baker  visited  the  hostile  en- 
campment, and  on  his  return  refused  to  participate  in  the  expe- 
dition, and  advised  all  his  friends  against  joining  it.  There 
was  no  authority  for  compelling  the  men  to  invade  a  neighbor- 
ing State,  and  for  this  cause,  much  to  the  vexation  of  myself 
and  several  others,  the  matter  fell  through. 
">  It  seems  that  Colonel  Baker  had  already  partly  arranged  the 
terms  for  the  accused  to  surrender.  They  were  to  be  taken 
to  Quincy  for  examination  under  a  military  guard  ;  the  attorney 
for  the  people  was  to  be  advised  to  admit  them  to  bail,  and 
they  were  to  be  entitled  to  a  continuance  of  their  trial  at  the 
next  court  a,t  Carthage ;  upon  this,  two  of  the  accused  came 
over  and  surrendered  themselves  prisoners. 

But  at  that  time  I  was  held  responsible  for  this  compromise 
with  the  murderers.  The  truth  is,  that  I  had  but  little  of  the 
moral  power  to  command  in  this  expedition.  Officers,  men, 
and  all  under  me,  were  so  infected  with  the  anti-Mormon  prej- 
udices that  I  was  made  to  feel  severely  the  want  of  moral  power 
to  control  them.  It  would  be  thought  very  strange  in  any  other 
government  that  the  administration  should  have  the  power  to 
direct,  but  no  power  to  control.  By  the  constitution  the  gov- 
ernor can  neither  appoint  nor  remove  a  militia  .officer.  He 
may  arrest  and  order  a  court  martial.  But  a  court  martial 
composed  of  military  officers,  elected  in  times  of  peace,  in  many 
cases  upon  the  same  principles  upon  which  Colonel  Pluck  was 
elected  in  New  York  city,  is  not  likely  to  pay  much  attention 
to  executive  wishes  in  opposition  to  popular  excitement.  So, 
too,  in  Illinois,  the  governor  has  no  power  to  appoint,  remove, 
or  in  anywise  control  sheriffs,  justices  of  the  peace,  nor  even  a 
constable ;  and  yet  the  active  co-operation  of  such  officers  with 
the  executive,  is  indispensable  to  the  success  of  any  effort  the 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  367 

governor  may  make  to  suppress  civil  war.  If  any  one  supposes 
that  the  greatest  amount  of  talents  will  enable  any  one  to 
govern  under  such  circumstances,  he  is  mistaken.  It  may  be 
thought  that  the  governor  ought  to  create  a  public  sentiment  in 
favor  of  his  measures,  to  sway  the  minds  of  those  under  him  to 
his  own  course,  but  if  .any  one  supposes  that  even  the  greatest 
abilities  could  succeed  in  such  an  effort  against  popular  feeling, 
and  against  the  inherent  love  of  numerous  demagogues  for  pop- 
ularity, he  is  again  mistaken. 

I  had  determined  from  the  first  that  some  of  the  ring-leaders 
in  the  foul  murder  of  the  Smiths  should  be  brought  to  trial. 
If  these  men  had  been  the  incarnation  of  Satan  himself,  as  was* 
believed  by  many,  their  murder  was  a  foul  and  treacherous  ac- 
tion, alike  disgraceful  to  those  who  perpetrated  the  crime,  to  the 
State,  and  to  the  governor,  whose  word  had  been  pledged  for 
the  protection  of  the  prisoners  in  jail,  and  which  had  been  so 
shamefully  violated ;  and  required  that  the  most  vigorous  means 
should  be  used  to  bring  the  assassins  to  punishment.  As  much 
as  anything  else  the  expedition  under  General  Hardin  had  been 
ordered  with  a  view  to  arrest  the  murderers. 

Accordingly,  I  employed  able  lawyers  to  hunt  up  the  testi- 
mony, procure  indictments,  and  prosecute  the  offenders.  A 
trial  was  had  before  Judge  Young  in  the  summer  of  1845.  The 
sheriff  and  pannel  of  jurors,  selected  by  the  Mormon  court,  were 
set  aside  for  prejudice,  and  elisors  were  appointed  to  select  a 
new  jury.  One  friend  of  the  Mormons  and  one  anti-Mormon 
were  appointed  for  this  purpose ;  but  as  more  than  a  thousand 
men  had  assembled  under  arms  at  the  court,  to  keep  away  the 
Mormons  and  their  friends,  the  jury  was  made  up  of  these  mil- 
itary followers  of  the  court,  who  all  swore  that  they  had  never 
formed  or  expressed  any  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of 
the  accused.  The  Mormons  had  one  principal  witness,  who 
was  with  the  troops  at  Warsaw,  had  marched  with  them  until 
they  were  disbanded,  heard  their  consultations,  went  before  them 


368  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

to  Carthage,  and  saw  them  murder  the  Smiths.  But  before  the 
trial  came  on,  they  had  induced  him  to  become  a  Mormon ;  and 
being  much  more  anxious  for  the  glorification  of  the  prophet 
than  to  avenge  his  death,  the  leading  Mormons  made  him  pub- 
lish a  pamphlet  giving  an  account  of  the  murder  ;  in  which  he 
professed  to  have  seen  a  bright  and  shining  light  descend  upon 
the  head  of  Joe  Smith,  to  strike  some  of  the  conspirators  with 
blindness,  and  that  he  heard  supernatural  voices  in  the  air  con- 
firming his  mission  as  a  prophet !  Having  published  this  in  a 
book,  he  was  compelled  to  swear  to  it  in  court,  which  of  course 
destroyed  the  credit  of  his  evidence.  This  witness  was  after- 
wards expelled  from  the  Mormons,  but  no  doubt  they  will  cling 
to  his  evidence  in  favor  of  the  divine  mission  of  the  prophet. 
Many  other  witnesses  were  examined,  who  knew  the  facts,  but, 
under  the  influence  of  the  demoralization  of  faction,  denied  all 
knowledge  of  them.  It  has  been  said,  that  faction  may  find 
men  honest,  but  it  scarcely  ever  leaves  them  so.  This  was  veri- 
fied to  the  letter  in  the  history  of  the  Mormon  quarrel.  The 
accused  were  all  acquitted. 

During  the  progress  of  these  trials,  the  judge  was  compelled 
to  permit  the  court-house  to  be  filled  and  surrounded  by  armed 
bands,  who  attended  court  to  browbeat  and  overawe  the  admin- 
istration of  justice.  The  judge  himself  was  in  a  duress,  and  in- 
formed me  that  he  did  not  consider  his  life  secure  any  part  of 
the  time.  The  consequence  was,  that  the  crowd  had  everything 
their  own  way  ;  the  lawyers  for  the  defence  defended  their  cli- 
ents by  a  long  and  elaborate  attack  on  the  governor ;  the  arm- 
ed mob  stamped  with  their  feet  and  yelled  their  approbation  at 
every  sarcastic  and  smart  thing  that  was  said ;  and  the  judge 
was  not  only  forced  to  hear  it,  but  to  lend  it  a  kind  of  approv- 
al. Josiah  Lamborne  was  attorney  for  the  prosecution ;  and 
O.  H.  Browning,  O.  C.  Skinner,  Calvin  A.  Warren,  and  William 
A.  Richardson,  were  for  the  defence. 

At  the  next  term,  the  leading  Mormons  were  tried  and  ac- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  369 

quitted  for  the  destruction  of  the  heretical  press.  It  appears 
that,  not  being  interested  in  objecting  to  the  sheriff  or  the  jury 
selected  by  a  court  elected  by  themselves,  they  in  their  turn 
got  a  favorable  jury  determined  upon  acquittal,  and  yet  the 
Mormon  jurors  all  swore  that  they  had  formed  no  opinion  as  to 
the  guilt  or  innocence  of  their  accused  friends.  It  appeared 
that  the  laws  furnished  the  means  of  suiting  each  party  with  a 
jury.  The  Mormons  could  have  a  Mormon  jury  to  be  tried 
by,  selected  by  themselves ;  and  the  anti-Mormons,  by  object- 
ing to  the  sheriff  and  regular  pannel,  could  have  one  from  the 
anti-Mormons.  From  henceforth  no  leading  man  on  either  side 
could  be  arrested  without  the  aid  of  an  army,  as  the  men  of 
one  party  could  not  safely  surrender  to  the  other  for  fear  of  be- 
ing murdered ;  when  arrested  by  a  military  force  the  constitu- 
tion prohibited  a  trial  in  any  other  county  without  the  consent 
of  the  accused.  No  one  would  be  convicted  of  any  crime  in 
Hancock ;  and  this  put  an  end  to  the  administration  of  the  crim- 
inal law  in  that  distracted  county.  Government  was  at  an  end 
there,  and  the  whole  community  were  delivered  up  to  the  do- 
minion of  a  frightful  anarchy.  If  the  whole  State  had  been  in 
the  same  condition,  then  indeed  would  have  been  verified  to  the 
letter  what  was  said  by  a  wit,  when  he  expressed  an  opinion 
that  the  people  were  neither  capable  of  governing  themselves 
nor  of  being  governed  by  others.  And  truly  there  can  be  no 
government  in  a  free  country  where  the  people  do  not  volunta- 
rily obey  the  laws. 

16* 


CHAPTER    XII. 

Canal  negotiations — Appointment  of  Oakley  and  Ryan  to  go  to  Europe— Factiousness  of 
the  letter-writers  and  newspapers— Proceedings  of  the  Commissioners— David  Lca- 
vltt— Meeting  of  American  bond-holders— Journey  to  Europe— Conditional  agree- 
ment there — Appointmeut  of  Governor  Davis  and  Captain  Swift  to  examine  and  re- 
port on  the  canal— Governor  Davis  attacked  by  the  Globe  newspaper— Ryan's  an- 
swer and  attack  on  the  Globe— Favorable  report— Ryan's  second  trip  to  Europe — 
Governor  Davis  sent  for— Failure  of  the  negotiation— Ryan's  attack  on  Governor 
Davis— Letter  from  Baring  Brothers  &  Co.  to  Ryan— Letter  of  William  S.  Wait, 
'  Esq.,  against  taxation— Answer  thereto — Visit  of  Mr.  Leavitt  and  Col.  Oakley  to 
Europe — New  negotiations  successful— Opposition  to  the  governor  likely  to  defeat 
the  canal— Nature  of  this  opposition — How  to  get  up  an  opposition  to  any  adminis- 
tration— Scandalous  conduct  of  a  committee  of  investigation — Trumbull  and  others 
—Conduct  of  the  opposition— All  their  projects  defeated— Visit  of  Governor  Davis 
and  Mr.  Leavitt  to  Springfield — Jealousy  of  the  legislature  against  monied  men  and 
foreign  influence— They  are  well  received— Propositions  of  the  public  creditors— Op- 
position arrayed — Miserable  intrigues  of  George  T.  M.Davis  and  other  whigs — Patri- 
otic conduct  of  Judge  Logan  and  other  whigs — North  and  South  again — Messrs. 
Strong,  Adams,  Janney,  and  Dunlap — The  canal  bill  defeated  in  the  Senate — Talk 
of  bribery— Vote  reconsidered  and  divided— Good  management  of  Senator  Kilpat- 
rick — The  canal  bill  passed — The  money  for  the  eanal  obtained — Election  and  organ- 
ization of  the  board  of  trustess — Rate  of  interest  reduced  to  six  per  cent. — Repeal  of 
the  Mormon  charters— Resolution  calling  on  the  governor  and  judges  to  relinquish 
their  salaries — The  governor's  answer — Mistaken  notioas  of  economy — Buncomb 
resolutions  and  speeches  on  this  subject — Shawneetown  Bank — Conditional  contract 
with  that  institution — Dr.  Anderson — The  true  art  of  riding  hobbies. 

HAVING  in  the  last  chapter  brought  down  the  history  of  Mor- 
mon disturbances  to  the  summer  of  1845,  we  turn  again  to  the 
civil  history  of  the  State.  In  March,  1843,  Col.  Charles  Oak- 
ley and  Senator  Michael  Ryan  were  appointed  agents  to  nego- 
tiate the  canal  loan ;  the  first  of  these  gentlemen  was  appointed 
because  the  friends  of  the  measure  in  the  legislature  insisted  on 
his  appointment;  Mr.  Ryan  was  appointed  because  he  had 
commenced  the  negotiation  the  year  before,  and  having  been 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  871 

an  engineer  on  the  canal,  could  give  explanations  as  to  its  prog- 
ress and  statistics,  which  could  not  so  well  be  given  by  Colonel 
Oakley.  The  first,  Col.  Oakley,  was  a  man  of  good  sense  and 
middling  intelligence,  and  was  patient,  gentlemanly,  and  plau- 
sible in  his  manners ;  whilst  his  associate  had  more  mind  and 
ambition,  with  greater  information,  but  less  tact  in  managing 
business.  The  next  thing  was  to  raise  money,  some  three 
thousand  dollars,  to  pay  their  expenses.  There  was  not  a  dol- 
lar in  the  treasury,  and  the  money  had  to  be  taken,  a  part  of  it 
from  the  school  fund,  to  be  replaced  in  a  short  time  by  other 
moneys  coming  into  the  treasury.  This  was  the  first  charge  I 
had  to  answer,  urged  in  the  south,  by  Trumbull,  the  lately  re- 
moved Secretary  of  State.  Messrs.  Oakley  and  Ryan  pro- 
ceeded to  New  York,  but  the  negotiation  was  for  a  time  likely 
to  be  defeated  by  partisan  editors  and  letter-writers  at  home ; 
who,  in  a  desperate  effort  to  make  political  capital,  were  anxious 
that  the  canal  measure  might  fail  in  the  hands  of  the  dominant 
party.  These  writers  misrepresented  the  action  of  the  legisla- 
ture, re  vamped  the  old  charge  of  destructiveness  upon  the  party 
in  power,  and  boldly  asserted  that  if  the  creditors  of  the  State 
advanced  the  money  to  make  the  canal,  they  would  be  repealed 
out  of  their  rights  by  another  legislature.  This  was  the  first 
difficulty  the  agents  had  to  encounter ;  they  commenced  a  series 
of  publications  in  the  New  York  papers,  many  of  which  were 
secured  to  speak  favorably  of  the  loan.  The  legislation  of  the 
last  winter,  the  real  condition  of  the  State,  its  future  prospects, 
and  the  means  adopted  to  reduce  the  debt,  by  a  compromise 
with  the  banks,  and  a  sale  of  the  public  property,  were  truly 
set  forth.  Confidence  immediately  began  to  revive ;  our  State 
stocks  rose  in  a  week  from  fourteen  to  twenty  per  cent.,  and  in 
a  few  weeks  more,  to  thirty  and  forty  per  cent.  This  awakened 
a  universal  inquiry,  and  men  began  to  believe  that  there  was 
some  little  glimmering  prospect  that  Illinois,  lately  so  low  in 
the  slough  of  universal  discredit  and  contempt,  was  about  to 


372  HISTOKT  OF  ILLINOIS. 

come  forth  like  a  phoenix  from  its  ashes.  The  American  Ex- 
change Bank  hi  New  York  held  $250,000  of  canal  bonds. 
David  Leavitt,  the  president  of  this  institution,  a  gentleman  of 
great  credit  in  the  financial  world,  and  being  a  far-seeing  and  sa- 
gacious financier,  assisted  in  calling  a  meeting  of  the  American 
bond-holders.  At  this  meeting  it  was  resolved  that  the  Amer- 
ican creditors  would  subscribe  for  their  proportion  of  the  loan. 

With  this  assurance,  and  backed  by  this  expression  of  confi- 
dence at  home,  Messrs.  Oakley  and  Ryan  departed  for  England, 
carrying  letters  to  Magniac,  Jardine,  &  Co.,  and  Baring,  Broth- 
ers &  Co.,  of  London,  and  to  Hope  &  Co.  of  Amsterdam,  who 
were  creditors  of  the  State,  and  amongst  the  wealthiest  capital- 
ists in  Europe.  These  gentlemen  were  found  well  disposed  to 
use  their  great  influence  in  favor  of  the  loan ;  but  they  wanted 
to  be  thoroughly  satisfied  as  to  the  value  of  the  canal  property, 
as  a  security  for  the  money,  and  ultimately  for  the  payment  of 
the  whole  canal  debt  of  $5,000,000  ;  nor  were  they  willing  to 
abandon  the  exaction  of  some  legislation  manifesting  the  will- 
ingness of  the  people  to  submit  to  taxation,  if  necessary,  to  pay 
some  part  of  the  interest  on  the  public  debt. 

A  provisional  arrangement  was  entered  into  during  the  sum 
mer  of  1843,  the  main  articles  of  which  were,  that  Abbott  Law- 
rence, Thomas  W.  Ward,  and  Mr.  William  Sturges,  of  Boston, 
should  be  a  committee  to  appoint  two  competent  persons  hi 
America  to  examine  the  canal  and  canal  lands,  estimate  their 
value,  and  the  amount  of  debt  already  contracted ;  that  if  four 
hundred  thousand  dollars  could  be  subscribed,  and  if  the  gov- 
ernor would  pledge  himself  to  recommend  taxation  to  the  next 
session  of  the  legislature,  this  sum  should  be  expended  in  the 
meantime,  leaving  the  subscribers  at  liberty  afterwards  to  in- 
crease their  subscriptions  if  they  saw  proper.  With  this  ar- 
rangement Messrs.  Oakley  and  Ryan  returned  home  in  Novem- 
ber, 1843 ;  the  Boston  committee  appointed  Gov.  John  Davis 
of  Massachusetts,  and  William  H.  Swift,  who  was  an  eminent 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  373 

engineer  and  a  captain  in  the  United  States  army,  to  come  out 
to  Illinois  and  make  the  required  examinations.  These  gentle- 
men came  on  early  in  the  winter.  The  appointment  of  Gov. 
Davis  was  no  sooner  known  than  it  was  fiercely  attacked  by  the 
Globe  newspaper  at  Washington  city,  the  great  organ  of  the 
democratic  party  in  the  United  States.  Gov.  Davis  was  at 
that  time  extensively  spoken  of  as  the  whig  candidate  for  Vice- 
President  at  the  ensuing  election  ;  and  the  zealots  of  the  oppo- 
site party  pretended  to  believe  that  he  had  been  selected  by  the 
foreign  bond-holders  for  this  particular  work,  so  as  to  give  him 
the  power  to  coerce  the  government  and  people  of  Dlinois  into 
the  support  of  the  whig  party,  and  to  favor  the  assumption  of 
State  debts  by  the  general  government,  or  the  distribution  of 
the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands.  As  it  turned 
out,  nothing  could  have  been  more  basely  false  and  contempti- 
bly ridiculous  than  this  charge,  but  it  was  made  with  such  bold- 
ness and  savage  ferocity,  that  if  it  had  been  seconded  in  Illinois, 
it  could  not  have  failed  to  have  disgusted  our  foreign  creditors, 
and  defeated  the  negotiation.  It  seemed  that  the  demon  of 
party,  on  both  sides,  insinuated  itself  into  everything,  to  defeat 
all  rational  efforts  for  the  public  welfare.  To  this  charge  of  the 
Globe,  Senator  Ryan  published  a  reply,  characterized  by  much 
boldness  and  vigor,  in  which  the  foreign  bond-holders  and  Gov. 
Davis  were  defended  with  considerable  ability,  and  the  editor 
of  the  Globe  was  castigated  for  his  impertinent  interference  in 
our  State  affairs,  with  little  less  ferocity  than  the  charge  of  the 
Globe  itself. 

Governor  Davis  and  Captain  Swift  proceeded  with  their  ex- 
aminations ;  found  the  representations  of  Messrs.  Oakley  and 
Ryan  to  be  substantially  true  ;  and  in  their  report,  occupying 
about  one  hundred  pages,  strongly  recommended  the  loan.  On 
my  part,  I  agreed  to  recommend  taxation  to  the  legislature ; 
and  it  was  now  confidently  believed  that  success  would  crown 
our  efforts  early  in  the  following  summer.  It  became  necessary 


374  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

to  send  an  agent  back  to  London  to  complete  the  arrangement, 
but  there  was  no  money  to  pay  his  expenses.  The  sum  of 
$1,500  was  soon  obtained,  with  my  sanction,  by  Gen.  Fry,  on  a 
pledge  of  canal  scrip, -which  enabled  Senator  Kyan  to  return  to 
London  in  the  spring  of  1844.  But  as  the  subscription  of 
$400,000  had  not  been  made  up  according  to  agreement,  the 
foreign  bond-holders  refused  to  proceed  further  with  the  loan, 
until  some  substantial  evidence  should  be  given  by  the  legisla- 
ture, that  the  population  of  the  State  had  some  regard  to  their 
obligations  and  to  the  claims  of  their  creditors,  and  should 
make  at  least  a  beginning  to  pay  interest  on  all  her  debts.  It 
seemed  to  be  the  great  object  of  our  foreign  creditors,  not  so 
much  to  secure  the  amount  of  their  claims,  as  to  procure  a  res- 
toration and  practical  recognition  of  the  obligation  of  public 
faith  among  States  and  nations ;  and,  in  the  meantime,  the  Lon- 
don committee  sent  out  to  America  for  Gov.  Davis,  as,  they 
said,  by  the  details  he  might  give,  to  inspire  with  greater  confi- 
dence the  parties  from  whom  subscriptions  were  solicited.  This 
put  off  the  negotiation  until  late  in  the  summer ;  and  as  it  was 
now  near  the  regular  session  of  the  legislature  in  December, 
1844,  the  London  committee  broke  off  the  negotiation,  to  await 
the  further  action  of  that  body.  During  the  pendency  of  the 
last  negotiation,  Col.  Oakley  had  also  returned  to  London ;  and 
now  both  he  and  Senator  Ryan  returned  home,  the  unlucky 
ministers  of  a  broken  and  discredited  State ;  Oakley  to  New 
York,  to  urge  further  efforts,  and  Ryan  to  his  seat  in  the 
Senate. 

Ryan  was  ambitious  of  political  distinction.  Whilst  he  re- 
mained in  an  humble  position,  his  manners  and  pretensions  had 
been  humble  and  amiable  ;  but  so  soon  as  he  was  elevated,  he 
became  irascible,  dictatorial,  and  overbearing.  He  placed  his 
heart  on  getting  the  money  to  make  the  canal ;  success  was  to 
make  him  the  greatest  man  in  the  State  ;  failure  was  to  return 
him  to  his  original  obscurity ;  for  this  reason  he  had  no  patience 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  375 

with  the  delays  incident  to  this  kind  of  business ;  every  little 
delay  irritated  and  soured  his  temper,  which  he  was  at  no  trou- 
ble to  conceal ;  so  that  his  demeanor  towards  the  foreign  bond- 
holders was  more  calculated  to  disgust  tfcan  to  win  their  favor. 
His  ambition  for  exclusive  credit  had  led  him,  in  anticipation 
of  a  triumph,  to  quarrel  with  and  abuse  his  colleague ;  but 
now  that  both  had  failed,  that  there  was  no  credit  to  quarrel 
about  or  divide,  he  looked  around  for  some  convenient  person 
to  bear  the  censure.  Instead  of  coming  home  to  be  met  with 
smiles  and  congratulations,  he  fancied  that  he  returned  only  to 
breast  the  frowns  of  an  indignant  people,  and  to  answer  for  his 
bad  success.  In  this  extremity  he  submitted  to  a  weakness 
which  I  regret  to  relate,  but  as  the  matter  made  much  noise  at 
the  time,  some  account  of  it  is  necessary  to  the  completeness 
of  this  history.  In  looking  around  for  a  person  to  throw  the 
blame  on,  he  selected  Gov.  Davis,  the  man  he  had  defended  be- 
fore against  the  attacks  of  the  Globe.  Gov.  Davis  was  a  very 
distinguished  whig  politician ;  as  such,  there  was  great  prejudice 
against  him  in  the  opposite  party,  which  prejudice  had  been  in- 
creased by  newspaper  accounts  of  his  opposition  to  the  war  of 
1812.  He  was  called  an  old  federalist,  which,  I  have  already 
said  in  another  place,  meant,  in  the  minds  of  western  democrats, 
everything  that  was  atrocious  and  abominable.  Here  then  was 
the  very  man  to  attack.  Gov.  Davis  would  defend,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course ;  the  people  would  be  divided  in  the  quarrel ;  the 
whigs  for  Gov.  Davis  and  the  democrats  for  Ryan ;  and  thus 
he  would  sustain  himself  at  least  with  the  democracy.  This  is 
a  trick  which,  when  hard  run,  unprincipled  politicians  frequent- 
ly practise,  and  cannot  be  too  much  condemned  by  all  honor- 
able men.  Ryan  no  sooner  arrived  in  America  than  he  revived 
the  calumnies  of  the  Globe  newspaper,  which  he  had  refuted  be- 
fore, and  now  openly  charged,  in  the  New  York  papers,  that  the 
Boston  committee  had  sent  out  Gov.  Davis  to  delay  the  loan 
until  after  the  pending  Presidential  election,  so  as  to  favor  the 


376  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

election  of  Mr.  Clay ;  and  that  Gov.  Davis  did  delay  it  for  that 
purpose.  The  falsity  of  this  charge  is  apparent  from  the  follow- 
ing extract  of  a  letter  from  Baring,  Brothers  &  Co.  to  Ryan 
himself,  a  copy  of  which  is  now  before  me  : — "  Since  writing 
what  precedes,  a  copy  of  the  Ottawa  Free  Trader  newspaper 
of  September  12,  has  been  put  into  our  hands,  with  a  publica- 
tion bearing  your  signature.  At  this  distance,  we  cannot  appre- 
ciate the  party  or  personal  motives  which  have  dictated  your 
statements,  nor  the  effect  they  may  produce  on  the  people  of 
Dlinois ;  but  to  those  who  are  acquainted  with  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  the  coarseness  of  language  and  the  perver- 
sion of  facts  contained  in  this  article  will  be  more  prejudicial  to 
the  writer  than  to  those  whom  it  is  intended  to  injure.  We 
sincerely  regret  the  appearance  of  such  a  manifesto  from  you, 
on  account  of  the  feelings  it  displays,  and  of  the  continued  hos- 
tility which  it  seems  we  must  expect  from  you  and  your  friends, 
to  the  trustees,  and  to  the  measures  which  we  believe  to  be 
most  conducive  to  the  satisfactory  completion  of  the  canal ;  to 
the  ultimate  payment  of  the  creditors,  and  to  the  general  wel- 
fare of  Illinois.  It  is  more  probable  that,  had  we  anticipated 
all  your  vexatious  proceedings,  we  should  have  declined  all  in- 
terference with  the  loan,  and  have  left  you  and  Col.  Oakley  to 
regret  the  failure  of  your  negotiation ;  but  having  once  embark- 
ed in  the  undertaking,  we  shall  continue  the  course  which  we 
consider  to  be  in  conformity  with  our  duty,  regardless  of  un- 
founded charges  and  insinuations,  from  whatever  point  they  may 
proceed ;  and  we  trust  and  believe  that  our  friends  on  your  side, 
who  are  entrusted  with  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the 
canal,  will  pursue  the  same  line  of  conduct. 

"  You  are  incorrect  in  stating  that  the  subscription  for  $400,- 
000  was  completed,  even  if  the  report  of  Governor  Davis  and 
Capt.  Swift  had  proved  satisfactory  at  the  time  of  your  depar- 
ture, after  your  first  visit  to  this  country ;  and  you  are  further 
mistaken  in  supposing  that  Governor  Davis  was  influenced  by 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  377 

any  party  views  in  his  communications  with  us,  or  in  his  pro- 
ceedings under  our  direction.  He  never  advised  the  delay  of 
the  loan  on  account  of  the  pending  presidential  election;  he 
never  stated  that  it  would  be  desirable  to  wait  to  see  whether 
Mr.  Clay,  if  elected,  would  support  the  assumption  of  State 
debts  by  the  federal  government ;  he  never  held  out  any  hope 
that  he  would  accept  the  trusteeship,  although  we  were  most 
desirous  that  he  should  be  appointed ;  and  his  advice  always 
was  that  the  _canal  bond-holders  should  accept  the  canal  and 
canal  lands  in  trust,  and  advance  the  money  required,  with  or 
without  taxation  for  the  payment  of  interest.  But  we  as  uni- 
versally insisted  that  before  any  further  sums  of  money  were 
lent  for  the  public  works  of  Illinois,  some  substantial  evidence 
should  be  given  that  the  population  of  the  State  had  some  regard 
for  their  obligations  and  to  the  claims  of  their  creditors.  We 
know  very  little  of  the  party  politics  of  the  United  States,  and 
still  less  of  those  of  your  State ;  and  politics  never  interfere 
with  our  dealings  either  with  States  or  individuals.  Our  mo- 
tive for  inducing  Governor  Davis  to  visit  Europe,  was  that  he 
might  by  the  details  he  would  give,  inspire  with  more  confi- 
dence the  parties  from  whom  subscriptions  were  solicited ;  and 
we  still  believe  that  his  report  and  verbal  statements  were 
mainly  instrumental  in  preparing  us  and  others  for  the  in- 
creased subscriptions  to  which  we  agreed  during  Mr.  Leavitt's 
visit  here.  As  we  are  anxious  that  our  communications  with 
you  should  not  be  exposed  to  misconstruction,  we  forward  this 
letter  open  to  Mr.  Ward  of  Boston,  to  be  sent,  after  perusal 
and  copy,  to  you."* 

*  As  Ryan  may  probably  attempt  to  reply  to  the  statements  in  the 
text,  it  may  be  proper  once  for  all  to  make  a  full  statement  of  his  con- 
duct. Before  he  made  his  charges  against  Governor  Davis,  he  balanced 
the  matter  in  his  mind,  whether  it  would  not  be  better  policy  to  lay 
the  blame  of  the  failure  of  the  canal  negotiation  on  me ;  but  he  finally 
decided  that  he  could  attack  a  whig  with  more  success  than  a  demo 


378  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

In  the  fall  of  1844,  Mr.  William  S.  Wait,  of  Bond  county, 
addressed  a  letter  through  the  newspapers  to  the  governor 
against  taxation  for  the  payment  of  the  public  debt ;  this  gave 
ine  a  decent  pretext  for  coming  before  the  people  with  my 
views  in  favor  of  the  measure,  in  advance  of  the  meeting  of  the 
legislature,  then  to  convene  in  December  following.  I  knew 
that  nothing  could  be  more  unpopular  than  to  favor  an  increase 

crat.  The  grounds  upon  which  he  designed  to  attack  me  were,  first,  for 
appointing  Col.  Oakley  to  be  his  colleague ;  he  alleged  that  Col.  Oakley 
having  formerly  been  one  of  the  fund  commissioners,  many  of  the  bond- 
holders believed  him  to  be  dishonest,  and  to  have  swindled  the  State. 
It  is  true  that  Governor  Carlin  and  others  had  boldly  made  this  charge 
at  home ;  but  it  is  doing  Col  Oakley  but  simple  justice  to  say,  that  his 
guilt  had  never  been  established  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  people.  Sec- 
ondly, that  I  had  promised  to  send  Ryan  a  power  of  attorney  in  1844, 
to  negotiate  and  close  the  terms  of  the  contract,  which  was  never  sent. 
For  which  reason  he  found  himself  in  London  confined  in  his  power  to 
negotiate  with  the  bond-holders  alone.  He  alleged  that  if  he  had  pos- 
sessed such  a  power  of  attorney,  he  could  have  withdrawn  the  negotia- 
tion from  the  bond-holders,  and  made  application  for  the  money  else- 
where, and  thereby  could  have  coerced  the  bond-holders  to  make  a 
favorable  decision  before  the  arrival  of  Governor  Davis.  To  all  which 
I  reply,  first,  that  whether  Col.  Oakley's  appointment  was  good  or  bad, 
it  was  dictated  by  the  friends  of  the  canal ;  by  those  most  particularly 
interested  in  the  negotiation ;  and  was  recommended  to  me  at  the  time 
by  Ryan  himself.  Second,  I  never  promised  to  send  Ryan  a  power  of 
attorney  to  negotiate  and  close  the  terms  of  the  contract.  This  is  a 
power  which  I  would  have  trusted  to  no  one.  I  always  intended  that 
Ryan,  or  Ryan  and  Oakley  might  negotiate  for  the  loan,  but  the  con- 
tract no  one  should  make  for  the  State  but  myself.  I  did  promise  to 
send  Ryan  a  power  of  attorney  to  settle  with  the  estate  of  Wright  & 
Co.,  which  was  sent,  and  was  the  only  one  ever  promised.  Third,  if 
Ryan  had  possessed  ever  so  many  powers  of  attorney,  he  could  have 
made  nothing  by  withdrawing  the  negotiation  from  the  bond-holders. 
They  were  the  only  persons  in  the  wide  world,  from  whom  there  was 
any  chance  to  get  the  money ;  and  this  was  well  known  to  both  Ryan 
and  to  the  bond-holders.  The  bond-holders  had  an  interest  which 
others  had  not.  We  already  owed  them  money,  which  they  had  no 


HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS.  879 

of  taxes ;  in  so  doing,  I  knew  that  I  came  into  immediate  col- 
lision with  every  demagogue,  and  incurred  imminent  hazard  of 
making  myself  utterly  odious  to  a  tax-hating  people.  I  clearly 
saw  that  to  be  opposed  to  taxation  might  be  the  better  for  my- 
self, but  certainly  worse  for  the  State. 

The  following  is  the  substance  of  the  letter  addressed  to  Mr. 
Wait,  through  the  newspapers :  "  I  am  much  pleased  that  your 

expectation  of  getting  paid  to  them,  without  making  a  new  advance. 
And  yet  Ryan  pretended  to  believe  that  if  he  had  had  the  power  to 
withdraw  the  negotiation  from  them,  and  threaten  them  with  an  ap- 
plication to  other  capitalists,  that  they  would  at  once  have  quailed, 
and  closed  the  contract  before  the  arrival  of  Governor  Davis.  Fourth, 
Oakley  afterwards  returned  to  London,  he  and  Ryan  were  there  to- 
gether, and  had  a  joint  power  of  attorney  given  the  year  before,  which 
would  have  authorized  them  to  withdraw  the  negotiation  from  the 
bond-holders  and  applied  elsewhere. 

If  the  money  could  have  been  obtained  from  others,  or  if  the  bond- 
holders could  have  been  alarmed  into  terms  by  their  threatenings,  why 
now  did  they  not  succeed  ?  They  both  failed  in  the  negotiation  with 
the  bond-holders,  and  never  pretended  to  apply  elsewhere,  or  if  they 
did,  they  were  bound  to  fail  again,  and  they  knew  it ;  for  no  man  in 
the  whole  world  would  at  that  time  have  lent  Illinois  money,  without 
having  an  interest  which  compelled  him  to  do  it.  After  the  canal  bill 
finally  succeeded,  Ryan  wanted  to  be  State  trustee ;  for  which  reason 
he  made  friends  with  Governor  Davis,  who  was  expected  to  be  one  of 
the  trustees  on  the  part  of  the  bond-holders.  I  refused  to  appoint  Ryan, 
and  no  sooner  did  he  ascertain  this  refusal,  than  I  found  him  urging  the 
appointment  of  Col.  Oakley,  the  man  he  had  charged  as  being  a  thief 
and  a  swindler,  whilst  he  was  fund  commissioner,  a  man  in  whom  he 
said  the  bond-holders  Had  so  little  confidence,  that  his  appointment  to 
negotiate  with  them  had  caused  the  failure  of  the  negotiation.  I  have 
always  believed  that  Ryan  had  hopes  of  being  appointed  chief  engineer 
on  the  canal,  if  Oakley  could  be  appointed  trustee.  These  statements 
are  made  merely  to  illustrate  the  civilization  of  the  times,  and  not  at 
all  to  affect  Mr.  Ryan  injuriously ;  for  I  am  well  aware  that  the  state 
of  political  morals  among  politicians  is  such,  that  a  man  may  do  many, 
yes,  very  many  worse  things  than  these,  and  still  be  very  respectable 
as  a  politician.  God  grant  that  it  may  not  be  so  long. 


380  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

esteemed  favor  of  September  20th,  published  in  the  'State  Reg- 
ister '  yesterday,  has  made  a  proper  occasion  for  some  sugges- 
tions of  mine  on  the  payment  of  the  State  debt,  before  the 
meeting  of  the  next  legislature.  A  deeper  interest  than  what 
is  yet  manifest,  ought  to  be  felt  in  this  subject.  It  ought  to  be 
discussed  more  than  it  has  been ;  the  people  ought  to  begin  to 
move  hi  it,  and  make  known  their  will  before  the  meeting  of 
the  next  legislature. 

"  You  object  to  increased  taxation  to  pay  any  portion  of  in- 
terest, believing  that  the  sum  within  our  ability  to  pay  without 
driving  the  people  to  desperation  by  oppressive  taxes,  will  be 
so  small  that  the  effort  will  be  without  utility ;  and  also,  be- 
cause the  general  failure  of  crops  for  the  last  two  years  in  a 
great  portion  of  the  State,  the  high  waters  of  the  last  spring, 
the  destruction  of  farms,  stock  and  crops  thereby,  and  the  un- 
precedented severe  sickness  of  this  summer  and  fall,  will  render 
it  absolutely  impossible  to  collect  the  present  taxes,  to  say  no- 
thing of  increased  taxation. 

"  During  the  last  two  years  many  persons  have  anxiously 
looked  to  the  next  general  Assembly,  expecting  that  body  to 
settle  forever  the  question  as  to  what  shall  be  done  with  the 
public  debt.  The  question  may  be  postponed ;  but  putting  off 
the  evil  day  will  not  settle  it.  It  will  present  itself  to  every 
succeeding  legislature.  We  can  never  get  clear  of  it  by  post- 
poning it.  The  men  of  this  day  may  attempt  to  throw  it  upon  the 
future ;  they  may  decide  to  do  nothing,  but  if  we  decide  against 
the  honest  claims  of  our  creditors,  it  will  be  forever  rising  again 
to  annoy  us.  The  moral  sense  of  the  world  will  be  against  us, 
and  will  forever  remind  us  that  such  a  question  cannot  be 
settled  except  in  conformity  to  justice.  The  fact  will  stare 
us  in  the  face,  that  we  have  had  the  money  of  our  creditors, 
and  that  they  have  had  nothing  in  return.  Like  the  ghost  of 
Macbeth,  every  time  the  legislature  meets  it  will  rise  to  glare 
upon  their  vision,  and  will  not  down  at  their  bidding.  It  will 


HISTOEY  OF   ILLINOIS.  381 

make  itself  seen,  heard,  and  felt,  until  mankind  can  eradicate 
their  memories  and  consciences.  There  is  no  possibility  of  de- 
stroying the  fact,  or  the  question  to  which  it  gives  rise.  All 
that  we  can  do  is  to  postpone  the  evil  day ;  and  in  the  mean- 
time, we  keep  ourselves  and  the  world  in  the  fearful  apprehen- 
sion that  blighting  ruin  will  sooner  or  later  fall  upon  this  fair 
land,  in  the  shape  of  high  taxes. 

"  This  has  been  our  condition  for  years  past ;  the  mere  be- 
lief that  taxes  may  be  oppressive  has  lost  us  many  citizens. 
The  high  and  palmy  days  once  were  when  we  doubled  our  pop- 
ulation in  a  few  years ;  when  if  a  man  had  more  land  than  he 
wanted  for  cultivation,  or  if  he  wanted  to  leave  the  country  or 
remove  from  one  part  of  the  State  to  another,  he  could  sell  his 
land  for  cash.  But  these  days  are  gone.  What  has  produced 
this  ?  has  it  been  high  taxes  1  No !  it  has  been  only  the  fear 
of  them.  Is  it  because  industry  has  been  burdened,  and  the 
country  drained  of  its  money,  to  pay  either  principal  or  inter- 
est of  the  debt  ?  No !  not  one  cent  has  yet  been  paid  by  taxa- 
tion. Nevertheless,  the  people  have  lived  in  more  alarm  than 
if  all  the  evils  they  imagined,  had  actually  existed.  Let  us  then 
settle  the  question,  and  know  the  worst  at  once,  for  the  worst  can 
never  be  so  bad  as  that  unmanly  fear  which  blights  all  enterprise. 

"  There  are  but  two  modes  of  settling  this  question ;  one  will 
be  to  begin  at  once  a  system  of  taxation  which  we  mean  to 
pursue ;  the  other  is  by  direct  repudiation.  This  last  mode 
will  expose  us  to  the  merited  scorn  and  contempt  of  the  civil- 
ized world.  It  defies  the  internal  principles  of  sacred  justice, 
and  will  establish  for  us  among  all  men  a  reputation  as  odious 
and  detestable  as  that  of  a  nest  of  pirates.  Mankind  will  never 
forget,  and  we  can  never  ourselves  forget,  that  we  have  had  the 
money  of  our  creditors,  that  we  owe  them,  that  they  have  lost 
that  much ;  and  that  with  a  heaven-daring  impudence  and  scorn- 
ful defiance  of  the  moral  principles  of  man's  nature,  we  deny 
the  debt  and  refuse  to  pay  it. 


382  msTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

"Suppose  that  the  question  can  be  settled  in  this  manner, 
what  better  will  we  be  off?  It  is  true  that  the  fear  of  high 
taxes  would  be  removed  for  the  present ;  but  will  this  invite 
immigration  ?  Will  it  enable  us  to  sell  our  property "?  Men 
with  means  to  buy,  would  not  come  to  the  State.  Such  persons 
would  never  venture  themselves  here.  No  man  would  bring 
here  a  good  character  to  be  swallowed  in  our  infamy.  If  any 
did  come,  they  would  be  the  worthless  of  mankind ;  such  as  we 
ought  to  desire  to  keep  away.  Our  State  would  become  a 
catchall  for  passing  rogues  and  vagabonds.  The  men  of  charac- 
ter already  here,  would  soon  lose  all  self-respect  for  the  charac- 
ter of  the  State.  The  State  itself  would  be  a  place  of  refuge, 
where  swindlers,  horse-thieves  and  counterfeiters  could  resort 
to,  be  received,  and  treated  as  gentlemen.  Who  of  our  present 
population  desires  to  see  this  ?  Who  desires  to  raise  a  family 
of  children  in  the  atmosphere  of  dishonor,  to  grow  up  among 
swindlers  and  vagabonds,  and  leave  them  at  his  death  an  in- 
heritance of  infamy  ?  None  of  us.  I  am  satisfied  that  all  of 
us,  and  you  in  particular,  duly  appreciate  the  advantages  to  a 
State  of  a  character  for  honor  and  uprightness.  We  look  to 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Virginia,  New  York  and  New  England, 
and  why  are  they  great  and  honorable  among  States  ?  It  is 
their  intelligence,  justice,  sense  of  honor,  and  an  all-consoling 
State  pride,  which  make  them  so.  We  all  wish  to  see  Illinois 
have  a  just  State  pride,  let  this  feeling  be  cultivated  here,  let 
us  have  something  to  be  proud  of,  let  us  vindicate  ourselves 
in  our  own  eyes,  by  acting  in  such  a  manner  as  to  deserve  to 
be  proud  of  our  State.  Until  we  do  this,  a  State  pride  cannot 
exist  without  this,  a  people  may  boast,  but  their  boastings  will 
be  but  the  empty  swagger  of  vulgar  vice  and  ignorance,  not  the 
complacent,  dignified  self-respect  of  the  upright  citizen.  The 
successful  robber  exults ;  and  we  may  exult  in  the  infamy  of 
repudiation,  but  we  cannot  exult  like  a  Kentuckian,  Virginian, 
or  Yankee.  Our  sons  will  never  be  able  to  show  themselves 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  383 

abroad  exulting  in  the  character  of  their  native  State,  as  young 
men  do  who  are  conscious  of  creditable  parentage.  This  State 
pride  is  of  great  worth  to  any  people.  It  inspires  them  to  make 
noble  efforts  at  improvement  and  excellence,  which  efforts  are 
totally  paralyzed  by  the  contrary  feeling  of  a  sense  of  degrada- 
tion. 

"  Many  persons  regret  that  this  sacred  feeling  of  State  pride 
is  not  more  on  the  increase  in  Illinois.  We  frequently  hear 
strangers  speak  disparagingly  of  our  people  ;  they  do  it  to  our 
faces  in  our  towns  and  villages.  We  ourselves  do  the  same. 
Every  one  may  speak  ill  of  us  with  impunity.  In  Kentucky 
or  Virginia,  this  would  not  be  hazarded.  There  the  perpetra- 
tors of  such  obloquy  would  be  certain  to  be  insulted,  and  in 
great  danger  of  physical  injury.  We  are  a.  new  State,  and 
therefore  something  of  this  kind  must  be  expected.  Many  of 
our  citizens  are  so  recent  that  as  yet  they  can  hardly  realize 
that  Illinois  is  their  country.  As  a  new  State,  we  have  a  char- 
acter to  make.  We  may  choose  a  good  or  a  bad  one.  But  we 
may  be  certain  that  no  just  State  pride  can  ever  exist  where  it 
is  not  really  deserved.  We  have  to  deserve  the  good  opinion 
of  the  world  and  our  own,  before  we  can  have  it.  And  I  do 
anxiously  hope  to  see  the  day  when  Illinois,  a  State  in  which  I 
have  lived  for  forty  years,  may  have  and  deserve  a  good  old- 
fashioned  State  pride,  like  some  of  the  older  States  of  the 
Union ;  so  that  her  people  may  feel  it,  be  animated  by  it  to  im- 
provement and  noble  enterprise,  and  be  solaced  by  it  both  at 
home  and  abroad.  I  am  sure  that  repudiation  of  our  just  debts 
can  never  bring  us  this ;  but  must  drag  us  down  like  the  weight 
of  the  nether-  mill-stone  to  the  abyss  of  self-abasement,  to  the 
great  whirlpool  of  the  contempt  and  scorn  of  all  right-minded 
and  civilized  people.  It  can  only  degrade  us  ;  it  can  never  settle 
the  question  of  the  public  debt ;  that  question  will  arise  at  every 
session  of  the  legislature,  and  in  the  counsels  of  every  new  set 
of  men  put  into  power.  The  memory  of  the  debt  will  never 


384  HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS. 

be  lost ;  our  obligation  to  pay  it  is  imperishable.  We  may 
deny  it,  and  plead  non  estfactum  to  our  bonds;  but  like  the 
rogue  who  seeks  to  cheat  his  creditor  in  private  life,  we  will 
still  owe  the  debt,  the  damning  consciousness  of  which,  being 
registered  in  our  hearts  and  in  heaven's  high  chancery,  will 
stick  there  to  plague  us  forever. 

"  Such  a  settlement  of  the  question,  if  it  could  be  made,  would 
be  of  no  use,  but  full  of  mischief.  It  would  invite  neither 
wealth  nor  people  to  come  among  us.  It  would  not  increase 
the  value  of  our  property,  nor  make  it  more  saleable ;  but  in 
my  humble  judgment  it  would  debase  us  and  belittle  us  in  our 
own  estimation ;  make  us  deserving  of  the  detestation  and  scorn 
of  the  world,  and  fill  our  State  with  the  low  dregs,  the  scum, 
the  refuse  population  of  other  countries — refugees  from  justice 
and  others,  who  leave  their  country  for  their  country's  good. 
How  then  can  this  question  be  settled  ?  I  answer  that  there  is 
but  one  way,  and  that  is  to  nerve  our  hearts  and  arms,  and 
meet  it  like  men.  If  we  can  do  but  little,  let  us  do  that  little. 
I  am  not  now  in  a  situation  to  know  how  much  can  be  done. 
The  legislature  will  be  the  best  judge  of  this  when  they  meet, 
and  as  the  fear  and  not  the  existence  of  high  taxes  constitutes 
our  embarrassment,  it  is  hoped  that  the  legislature  will  provide 
such  a  settlement  of  the  question  as  will  ascertain  the  whole 
height  and  depth,  length  and  breadth,  and  thickness,  of  the  ap- 
prehended evil,  for  until  this  is  done,  the  fancies,  the  fears,  the 
imaginations  of  men  will  conjure  up  evils,  exceeding  the  reality. 
The  reality,  whenever  it  comes,  can  never  be  so  terrifying  as 
the  undefined,  dreamy  imaginations  of  men,  looking  for  an  un- 
known and  untried  evil." 

This  letter  arrived  at  New  York  in  course  of  mails,  and  was 
very  extensively  republished  in  the  eastern  newspapers.  It  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  Mr.  Leavitt,  and  encouraged  him  and 
Col.  Oakley  to  return  to  Europe  early  in  the  winter.  Upon 
their  arrival  hi  London,  the  letter  had  preceded  them,  and,  Mr. 


HISTORY   OF   ILLINOIS.  385 

Leavitt  informed  me,  had  already  produced  a  very  favorable 
change  in  the  minds  of  our  creditors  ;  as  by  it  they  were  con- 
vinced that  the  public  men  in  Illinois  were  not  all  of  them  dem- 
agogues. It  was  now  agreed  by  Mr.  Leavitt,  Magniac,  Jardine 
&  Co.,  and  Baring,  Brothers  &  Co.,  to  complete  the  subscriptions 
to  the  loan,  these  gentlemen  each  subscribing  for  a  much  larger 
share  of  it  than  they  had  originally  intended.*  Mr.  Leavitt 
and  Col.  Oakley,  with  Gov.  Davis,  hurried  on  to  Illinois,  and 
arrived  in  Springfield  about  the  middle  of  February,  1845,  dur- 
ing the  session  of  the  legislature,  and  about  sixteen  days  before 
it  was  to  adjourn. 

Upon  the  meeting  of  the  legislature,  I  found  that  quite  an  op- 
position had  been  organized  to  the  administration.  The  whigs, 
from  party  motives,  were  compelled  to  be  against  me.  The 
democrats  were  in  a  majority  of  about  two-thirds  in  each  house ; 
and  here,  as  everywhere  else,  the  larger  the  majority  the  less  is 
the  tenacity  of  its  parts.  When  majorities  cease  to  fear  the 
minority,  they  are  the  readier  to  quarrel  amongst  themselves. 
Nothing  more  promotes  union  in  a  party  than  the  fear  of  de- 
feat ;  and  nothing  more  promotes  anarchy  in  its  members  than 
over-confidence  of  strength.  In  my  case,  there  was  still  another 
cause  for  a  factious  opposition.  I  had  within  the  last  two  years 
to  make  several  important  appointments ;  such  as,  two  bank 
commissioners,  a  Secretary  of  State,  three  judges  of  the  supreme 
court,  and  one  United  States  Senator.  This  was  just  enough  of 
patronage  to  make  the  executive  more  enemies  than  friends. 
For  these  offices  there  were  many  applicants  ;  those  who  were 

*  It  is  not  known  in  Illinois  how  much  credit  is  due  to  Mr.  Leavitt 
for  the  success  of  these  negotiations.  Being  a  man  of  great  wealth  and 
well-established  integrity,  and  being  also  himself  the  owner  of  $250,000 
or  more  of  the  Illinois  canal  stocks,  he  was  able  to  have  an  influence 
with  the  foreign  bond-holders  which  could  have  been  exerted  by  no 
citizen  of  Illinois.  To  Mr.  Leavitt's  visit  to  Europe,  and  his  own  lib- 
eral subscription,  are  we  undoubtedly  indebted  for  the  final  success  of 
the  loan. 

17 


' 


386  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

disappointed  became  bitter  enemies  ;  and  now  a  great  effort  was 
to  be  made  by  these  disappointed  factionists  of  the  democratic 
party  to  defeat  the  confirmation  of  the  senator  and  judges  be- 
fore the  legislature,  and  in  conjunction  with  the  whigs  to  oppose 
and  discredit  the  administration. 

It  is  an  easy  matter  to  raise  an  opposition  to  any  administra- 
tion. It  is  only  to  assume  that  all  men  are  perfect,  or  ought  to 
be  so  ;  that  in  fact  the  millenium  has  already  come ;  and  a 
standard  of  perfection  is  to  be  adopted  in  judging  of  all  mat- 
ters of  government,  as  if  the  millenium  had  come  in  very  deed. 
It  is  to  turn  away  your  eyes  from  everything  which  is  right  in 
an  administration,  and  to  exaggerate  all  little  errors,  and  bring 
them  forward  as  an  evidence  of  corruption  ;  it  is  to  promulgate 
falsehood,  and,  if  need  be,  swear  to  its  truth  ;  and  in  this  spirit 
to  find  fault  with  everything  and  approve  nothing.  Lies  should 
be  uttered  boldly,  with  no  appearance  of  doubt ;  and  in  num- 
ber they  should  be  as  legion ;  for  it  is  a  maxim  with  factionists 
that  where  a  great  quantity  of  mud  is  thrown  upon  a  man,  some 
of  it  must  certainly  stick.  As  to  measures,  the  administration 
is  obliged  to  choose  some  out  of  many,  supposed  to  be  equally 
well  adapted  to  bring  about  some  result.  And  in  every  gov- 
ernment there  are  frequent  occasions  when  it  is  exceedingly 
doubtful  whether  one  course  or  another  ought  to  be  pursued. 
The  administration  is  obliged  to  decide  in  favor  of  One  course, 
or  one  set  of  measures ;  the  factionist  is  then  to  take  the  other 
side,  and  as  his  measures  are  not  to  be  tried  by  the  test  of  ex- 
periment, he  has  every  advantage.  If  the  measures  of  the  ad- 
ministration fail  of  giving  the  most  perfect  satisfaction,  the  dif- 
ficulties attending  them,  after  they  are  tried,  will  be  visible  to 
the  meanest  capacity.  But  Ihe  insufficiencies  of  rejected  meas- 
ures will  never  be  seen,  or  at  least  can  never  be  demonstrated. 
They  may  be  conjectured,  but  not  proved.  The  factionist  is  to 
make  no  allowance  for  all  this,  but  is  to  charge  all  the  little  in- 
sufficiencies which  too  often  accompany  the  most  perfect  means, 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  387 

and  which  actual  experiment  has  developed,  to  imbecility  and 
want  of  judgment ;  and  is  stoutly  to  insist  upon  the  absolute 
perfection  of  other  measures  and  other  means  not  chosen.  And 
this  he  can  do  with  the  greater  plausibility,  as  the  measures  not 
tried  can  only  be  conjectured.  An  administration  in  new  and 
difficult  positions,  goes  on  like  men  opening  a  road  through 
heavy  timber  ;  all  behind  can  be  seen,  but  all  before  is  hidden 
from  the  sight ;  and  it  is  as  easy  to  conjecture  one  thing  as  an- 
other of  an  unknown  and  unexplored  country.  The  factionist 
is  he  who  goes  before  and  prophecies  evil ;  and  comes  after, 
when  the  obstructions  to  sight  are  removed,  and  cavils  at  the 
small  hills  and  ravines  in  the  way.  If  fault-finding  is  the  only 
art  of  the  factionist,  he  is  to  imitate  the  humble  genius  of  the 
swine,  which,  although  they  cannot  build  fences,  are  sure  to  find 
such  large  cracks  and  holes  in  them  as  have  unluckily  been  left 
unstopped  by  the  builder. 

Upon  this  plan,  an  opposition  was  raised  to  my  administra- 
tion. The  disappointed  office-seekers  succeeded  in  getting  a 
committee  of  my  personal  enemies  appointed  in  the  lower 
house  to  examine  the  executive  offices.  This  committee  enter- 
ed into  an  alliance  with  a  notorious  lying  letter- writer,  and  pre- 
tended to  give  him  information  of  the  enormities  which  they 
had  discovered  in  the  government,  which  he  wrote  out  and  pub- 
lished for  the  information  of  the  people.  They  went  sneaking 
about  through  the  executive  offices  with  the  stealthy  step  of 
one  who  wanted  to  steal,  hunting  up  matters  of  accusations.  I 
paid  no  attention  to  their  inquisitorial  search,  but  treated  them 
with  perfect  contempt,  knowing  that  they  would  never  dare  to 
make  a  report  against  me.  The  committee  continued  their  ex- 
amination all  the  session,  giving  out  wonderful  accounts  to  be 
published  in  the  newspapers,  but  they  never  made  any  report. 
As  they  really  found  nothing  to  report  against,  they  thought  it 
best  not  to  report  at  all.  This  was  the  newest  way  of  discredit- 
ing an  administration  practiced  upon  me  on  three  different  occa- 


888  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

sions,  exclusive  right  to  which  ought  to  be  secured  to  the  in- 
ventors forever.  This  opposition  amounted  to  nothing,  so  far 
as  I  was  concerned  myself;  "but  it  came  near  defeating  the 
canal. 

The  opposition  was  put  on  foot  in  part  by  Mr.  Trumbull, 
late  Secretary  of  State,  who  had  his  private  griefs  to  assuage  ; 
and  by  an  ambitious  aspirant  for  the  United  States  Senate,  who 
though  often  assured  to  the  contrary,  would  never  believe  but 
that  I  would  be  a  candidate  for  that  office  in  1846.  Trum- 
bull being  a  good  lawyer,  but  no  statesman  was  literally  de- 
voured by  ambition  for  office,  and  was  rather  unfitted  to  be 
popular  by  any  natural  means,  with  the  people  amongst  whom 
he  resided.  He  seemed  to  have  the  opinion  that  the  only 
means  of  success,  was  to  be  a  demagogue ;  and  he  was  unfitted 
by  nature  to  be  a  demagogue.  So  far  from  possessing  that  ap- 
pearance of  generosity  and  magnanimity,  which  often  recom- 
mends a  man  to  the  people,  his  manners  were  precise,  and  his 
appearance  would  be  called  by  many  puritanical.  He  was  a 
man  of  strong  prejudices,  and  not  remarkable  for  liberal 
views.  No  such  man  can  very  successfully  play  the  dema- 
gogue ;  he  may  manage  well  with  politicians,  but  he  can  never 
establish  a  broad  foundation  of  support  among  the  people,  as 
there  is  nothing  in  such  men  to  attract  the  people  to  their 
opinions  and  character.  Such  men  might  be  respectable,  act- 
ing in  accordance  with  their  natural  gifts,  but  must  always 
fall  when  acting  a  part  for  which  they  were  never  fitted  by 
nature. 

After  Trumbull  was  removed  from  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
State,  in  the  spring  of  1843,  he  hurried  off  to  the  Belleville  dis- 
trict, to  be  a  candidate  for  Congress,  calculating  to  secure  all 
the  rabid  democrats  who  were  most  hostile  to  banks,  to  be  in 
his  favor.  But  he  failed  in  getting  more  than  two  votes  in  the 
nominating  convention.  The  next  year  he  quarrelled  with  his 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  389 

old  friend,  Governor  Reynolds,  for  the  privilege  of  being  a  can- 
didate, and  at  this  session  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  United 
States  Senate,  but  declined  before  the  election,  as  it  became 
evident  he  would  get  but  a  few  votes.  After  that,  again  he 
became  a  prominent  candidate  for  governor,  but  being  again 
defeated,  he  immediately  became  a  candidate  for  Congress  in 
the  Belleville  district,  obtained  the  nomination  from  his  party, 
and  in  a  district  where  the  democratic  party  is  in  a  majority  of 
three  or  four  thousand  votes,  he  was  defeated  by  more  than  two 
thousand  majority  against  him.  Up  to  this  time,  Trumbull  was 
looked  upon  as  a  man  of  great  promise  in  the  democratic  party. 
He  was  believed  to  be  an  active,  ambitious,  and  rising  man,  one 
who  was  to  possess  considerable  power.  And  although,  with- 
out this  belief  in  his  favor,  he  would  have  had  no  power,  yet 
the  idea  that  he  was  to  be  great,  naturally  gave  him  power. 
Men  love  to  worship  the  rising  sun,  and  are  careful  about 
making  enemies  of  one  who  either  is  now,  or  who  it  is  believed 
will  soon  be  great.  Politicians  estimate  the  value  of  such  a 
man  as  the  speculators  estimated  the  value  of  Chicago  lots  in 
1836.  Chicago  was  then  but  a  village;  but  it  was  believed 
that  it  would  soon  be  a  city,  which  made  lots  there  sell  for 
more  than  they  are  worth,  now  that  it  has  become  a  city  of 
fifteen  thousand  inhabitants.  Or  rather,  politicians  value  such 
a  man  as  a  farmer  values  a  favorite  colt ;  he  measures  it  from 
the  fetlock  to  the  knee,  and  from  the  knee  to  the  shoulder 
blade,  and  from  thence  to  the  withers,  and  from  thence  to  the 
loins  and  around  the  body,  and  if  he  can  see  in  it  the  promise 
of  a  fine  horse,  he  asks  more  for  it  than  he  would  if  it  were  al- 
ready a  horse.  But  when  Trumbull  was  defeated  for  Congress 
by  so  large  a  majority,  thus  disappointing  the  popular  belief  in 
his  destiny,  his  power  and  consequence  vanished  in  a  moment. 
It  was  now  certain  that  the  village  was  not  to  be  a  city,  nor  the 
colt  a  fine  horse.  A  man's  strength  is  not  always  real,  but 
greatly  depends  upon  the  continued  run  of  a  general  belief  that 


t 


390  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

he  is  strong,  or  will  be  strong  some  time  in  his  |j£e_.  For  which 
reas05,^he^a5$ubjjk3  man  is  once  prostrated-/ right  or  wrong 
he  rarely"  ever -rises  again.  The  'charm  of  hip  power  is  gone. 

The;  ambitious  aspirant  for  the  United  Statfes-Senate,  before 
alluded  to,  became  alarmed  when  I  first  came  into  office,  lest  I 
might  be  hi  his  way  in  1846  ;  and  no  assurance  from  me  would 
convince  him  to  the  contrary.  As  I  really  did  not  intend  to  be 
a  candidate,  I  never  suspected  the  system  of  tactics  he  put  in 
operation  against  me.  For  the  amusement  of  the  reader,  I  will 
state  some  of  his  doings.  He  advised  the  compromise  with  the 
banks,  to  get  it  introduced  into  the  legislature  as  an  administra- 
tion measure,  and  he  then  opposed  it  as  not  being  sufficiently 
democratic.  He  advised  and  insisted  upon  the  removal  of 
Trumbull,  and  when  it  was  done,  he  denounced  the  act  as  being 
an  unjustifiable  act  of  power,  by  means  of  which  he  procured 
Trumbull  and  his  friends  to  be  my  enemies  and  friends  to  him- 
self. He  went  to  leading  men  in  the  south,  with  a  view  to  put 
them  against  me,  by  insisting  that  as  I  resided  in  the  north,  I 
must  be  the  representative  of  northern  interests.  To  the  north- 
ern men  he  insisted,  that  as  I  had  been  brought  up  in  the  South, 
with  southern  feelings  and  prejudices  against  Yankees,  every 
northern  man  was  interested  in  opposing  me.  One  other  man 
desired  to  make  a  vacancy  for  himself  in  the  Lower  House  of 
Congress,  by  the  election  of  a  member  of  that  body  to  the  Sen- 
ate ;  and  fearing  that  I  might  be  in  the  way  of  his  favorite,  this 
will  account  for  packing  a  committee  against  me  at  the  session 
of  1844-'5. 

The  opposition  aimed  to  defeat  my  appointments  for  United 
States  Senator  and  judges  of  the  supreme  court  in  the  elections 
by  the  legislature,  and  to  defeat  the  election  of  friends  of  mine 
who  were  candidates  for  public  printer,  auditor  and  treasurer  ; 
but  they  were  most  anxious  to  get  a  majority  against  the  meas- 
ures of  the  administration.  For  this  purpose  the  leaders  as 
usual  opposed  everything  they  supposed  the  governor  was  in 


f 


HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS.  391 

favor  of.  The  election  of  United  States  Senator  was  first 
brought  on;  Trumbull  himself  was  the  candidate  against  my 
appointment.  The  election  of  public  printers  came  next ;  the 
election  of  auditor  and  treasurer  afterwards,  and  last  of  all 
came  the  election  of  judges.  The  plan  was  to  keep  the  election 
of  judges  to  the  last,  and  in  the  meantime,  to  add  a  little  to  the 
opposition  strength  by  gathering  the  discontented  in  every  pre- 
ceding election ;  and  then  to  swell  it  up  again  by  enlisting  such 
as  were  opposed  to  the  measures  recommended  by  the  execu- 
tive. My  friends  were  all  elected  to  office ;  but  the  opposition 
came  near  defeating  the  canal. 

Amongst  the  most  important  measures  recommended  by  the 
governor  were  the  canal  bill,  and  a  bill  to  increase  the  taxes. 
It  has  been  claimed  by  Trumbull  and  his  friends  that  they 
never  opposed  the  canal,  they  were  only  hostile  to  all  canal 
measures  proposed  by  its  friends,  without  proposing  any  of 
their  own.  As  I  have  said  before,  about  the  middle  of  Febru- 
ary, Governor  Davis  and  Mr.  Leavitt  arrived  in  Springfield, 
during  the  session.  The  opposition  were  ready  to  open  their 
eyes  and  stare  with  wonder  at  these  envoys  of  the  public  cred- 
itors. The  words  federalists,  aristocrats,  monied  kings,  were 
freely  whispered  about.  It  was  given  out  that  a  brace  of  proud 
aristocrats,  the  representatives  of  the  monied  aristocracy,  had 
arrived  to  wheedle,  coerce,  or  bribe  the  legislature,  as  best 
might  suit  their  purposes.  Many  who  were  most  active  in 
spreading  these  dire  alarms,  took  sly  peeps  at  the  strangers, 
hoping  to  find  confirmation  for  their  fears  ;  and  one  or  two  of 
them  at  least  with  the  hope  that  bribes  might  be  offered.  But 
contrary  to  their  hopes  they  found  Governor  Davis  and  Mr. 
Leavitt  plain,  sensible  gentlemen  ;  modest  and  retiring,  though 
kind  and  familiar,  when  familiarity  could  be  indulged  in  with 
propriety.  Many  of  the  opposition  members  took  quite  a  fancy 
to  Governor  Davis,  to  his  natural  manners,  evident  kindness 
of  heart,  and  air  of  sterling  integrity.  One  of  them,  after 


392  HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS. 

making  his  acquaintance,  was  so  struck  with  his  good  qualities 
that  he  offered,  if  Governor  Davis  would  remove  to  Illinois,  to 
have  him  right  at  once  made  a  justice  of  the  peace ;  and  if  he 
behaved  well  in  that,  promised  that  he  should  be  elevated  to 
higher  office,  with  rapid  promotion. 

Governor  Davis  and  Mr.  Leavitt  made  the  proposition  of  the 
public  creditors,  which  was  communicated  to  both  Houses 
through  the  executive.  A  bill  was  prepared  by  the  committee 
of  finance,  and  reported  by  Mr.  Arnold  of  Chicago,  proposing 
some  amendments  of  the  canal  law  of  the  previous  session,  and 
provision  for  a  permanent  tax  to  pay  a  portion  of  the  interest 
on  the  public  debt.  This  bill  passed  the  House  by  some  twen- 
ty majority ;  but  whilst  there  pending,  Messrs.  Trumbull  &  Co., 
arrayed  themselves  in  opposition  to  it ;  their  main  power  and 
art  in  so  doing,  being  to  alarm  the  timid  by  holding  up  the 
terrors  of  an  unpopular  vote  in  favor  of  taxation.  Trumbull 
took  his  stand  in  the  lobbies  of  the  two  Houses,  for  the  purpose 
of  calling  out  and  lecturing  members,  and  threatening  them 
with  the  indignation  of  the  south  for  showing  it  the  least  favor. 

Besides  this,  the  whig  party  were  very  undecided  as  to  what 
course  they  would  take.  That  party  contained  in  it  many  am- 
bitious gentlemen  of  fine  talents,  well  qualified  to  serve  their 
country  in  the  highest  offices  ;  but  the  overwhelming  majorities 
against  them  had  kept  them  down.  Many  of  them  had  become 
disheartened,  or  embittered  to  the  last  degree.  Such  as  these 
were  ready  to  adopt  any  expedient  for  breaking  up  the  thorough 
organization  of  the  democratic  party.  This  portion  of  the 
whig  politicians  was  led  on  by  George  T.  M.  Davis,  a  whig 
lawyer  and  editor,  a  man  of  great  activity  and  enterprise ; 
but  rather  unscrupulous  as  to  the  means  he  employed.  A 
secret  meeting  of  the  whig  leaders  was  called.  In  this  Mr. 
G.  T.  M.  Davis  insisted  that  the  whig  party  should  oppose 
the  canal,  oppose  an  increase  of  taxes,  and  all  measures  to  pay 
the  public  debt.  He  insisted  upon  an  alliance  of  the  whigs 


HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

•with  the  southern  democrats  on  these  questions  as  a  means  of 
overthrowing  the  organization  of  the  democratic  party ;  of 
making  a  new  division  of  the  parties,  geographically  between 
the  north  and  the  south.  There  was  to  be  a  southern  party 
and  a  northern  party,  and  the  whigs  were  to  take  the  side  of 
the  south.  But  N.  D.  Strong  of  Alton,  and  Judge  Logan,  be- 
ing both  of  them  talented  whigs  and  members  of  the  legisla- 
ture, had  too  much  self-respect  to  enter  into  such  a  miserable 
intrigue.  They  were  threatened  with  expulsion  from  the  whig 
party  for  their  contumacy.  They  succeeded,  however,  in  break- 
ing up  Davis'  arrangement.  Judge  Logan's  support  of  the 
canal  measures,  was  the  means  of  carrying  them  through  the 
legislature.  To  the  honor  of  the  south  I  record  the  names  of 
four  members  from  that  quarter  who  voted  in  favor  of  these 
measures.  These  members  were  Strong  of  Madison,  Adams 
of  Monroe,  Janney  of  Crawford,  and  Dunlap  of  Lawrence ;  one 
of  them  a  whig,  and  three  of  them  democrats.  These  gentle- 
men ought  to,  and  will  be  long  remembered  for  their  integrity 
and  moral  courage.  It  is  due  also  to  Messrs.  Gregg  and  Ar- 
nold of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  Messrs.  Judd  and 
Mattison  of  the  Senate,  that  their  names  should  be  recorded  in 
history,  and  long  remembered  for  their  efficient  advocacy  of 
these  measures. 

After  the  bill  had  passed  the  House,  it  was  sent  to  the  Senate ; 
here  it  was  defeated,  two  or  three  days  before  the  close  of  the 
session,  by  a  single  vote.  Its  enemies  now  triumphed  in  a  most 
uproarious  manner.  Its  friends  rallied,  and  procured  a  recon- 
sideration of  the  vote.  It  was  predicted  that  nothing  but  brib- 
ery could  now  carry  the  bill ;  and  senators  were  clamorously 
warned  that  any  change  in  their  votes  would  subject  them  to 
the  strongest  suspicion  of  bribery  ;  two  of  the  opposition  sen- 
ators had  helped  to  defeat  it  in  the  hope  of  creating  a  necessity 
for  the  offer  of  bribes.  One  old  senator  who  desired  to  be 
bribed  was  as  clamorous  as  the  rest.  A  few  of  the  friends  of 

17* 


394  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  canal  living  in  Lasalle  and  Cook  counties  made  up  a  subscrip- 
tion of  eighty  acres  of  land  and  some  money  to  bribe  him,  and 
would  have  done  so  if  they  had  not  been  advised  to  the  con- 
trary. Such  a  course  towards  one  senator  would  have  been  un- 
just towards  others  who  lent  the  measure  their  honest  support, 
by  subjecting  them  to  injurious  suspicions. 

The  vote  on  the  bill  in  the  Senate,  by  which  it  had  been  de- 
feated, being  reconsidered,  the  bill  was  referred  to  a  select  com- 
mittee, together  with  another  bill  of  an  unimportant  character, 
which  had  already  passed  the  House  of  Representatives.  It  was 
known  that  one  senator  would  not  vote  for  the  tax  and  the 
canal  bath  in  the  same  bill.  By  their  connection  the  tax  was 
made  to  appear  as  a  local  measure,  intended  only  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  north.  The  committee,  therefore,  divided  the  bill. 
They  struck  out  of  the  canal  bill  all  that  related  to  a  tax,  and 
they  struck  out  all  of  the  bill  referred  with  it,  and  inserted  the 
taxing  part  into  that.  And  these  two  bills  being  now  reported 
back  to  the  Senate,  the  Senate  concurred  in  their  passage  as  thus 
amended  by  them.  They  were  sent  back  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives the  same  hour,  for  the  concurrence  of  the  House  in 
the  amendments  of  the  Senate,  which  was  given ;  and  thus  these 
important  measures  passed  into  laws ;  or,  instead  of  saying  that 
they  passed,  I  ought  rather  to  say,  that  they  wabbled  through 
the  legislature.  To  Thomas  M.  Kilpatrick,  late  senator  from 
Scott  county,  is  the  honor  due,  of  the  good  management  hi  the 
Senate,  in  dividing  and  amending  the  measure,  and  thus  secur- 
ing its  passage.  I  give  these  facts,  curious  as  they  may  appear, 
to  illustrate  the  fertile  genius  of  western  men,  and  as  a  speci- 
men of  the  modes  of  legislation  in  a  new  country. 

The  legislature  adjourned  in  a  day  or  two  after  this,  and  the 
opposition  members  returned  to  their  constituents  in  the  worst 
humor  imaginable.  They  threatened  a  rebellion  of  the  whole 
south ;  but,  as  usual  in  such  cases,  they  were  much  more  excited 
than  their  constituents.  A  few  of  the  disappointed  ones,  Trum- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  395 

bull  amongst  the  number,  threatened  to  make  speeches  all  aronud 
the  regular  circuit,  and  excite  the  people  against  these  new  meas- 
ures. But  Walter  B.  Scates,  the  judge  of  that  circuit,  announced 
his  intention  to  answer  them,  and  chastise  them,  as  their  dema- 
goguism  deserved,  which  made  them  abandon  their  design.  In  the 
summer  afterwards,  two  great  conventions  of  the  southern  peo- 
ple were  held,  one  at  Marion  and  the  other  at  Fairfield,  and  upon 
motion  of  Judge  Scates,  nearly  unanimously  declared  in  favor 
of  the  canal,  and  of  taxation  for  the  payment  of  the  public  debt. 
Thus  did  the  people  of  the  south  nobly  redeem  themselves  from 
the  aspersions  of  the  demagogues  who  misrepresented  them  in 
the  legislature  ;  and  thus  perished  the  last  hope  of  repudiation 
in  Illinois.  When  Trumbull  afterwards  became  a  candidate  for 
governor,  he  was  as  much  in  favor  of  taxation  and  the  canal  as 
any  man  in  the  State. 

It  now  only  remains  to  be  said  on  this  subject,  that  the  canal 
arrangement  was  perfected  under  the  laws  passed  at  this  ses- 
sion, in  June,  1845.  Two  trustees  were  elected  by  the  bond- 
holders, and  one  was  appointed  by  the  governor ;  the  board  was 
organized,  the  work  on  the  canal  was  let  to  contract,  money  was 
obtained  as  it  was  wanted ;  and  now  there  appears  to  be  a  mor- 
al certainty  that  the  canal  will  be  completed  in  the  course  of  a 
year. 

At  this  session  the  legislature  put  down  the  rate  of  interest 
on  money  to  six  per  cent.  This  was  caused  by  the  conduct  of 
the  merchants  in  the  middle  and  southern  parts  of  the  State. 
In  the  time  of  bank  suspensions,  when  money  was  plenty,  the 
merchants  well  supplied  with  goods  encouraged  the  people  to 
buy  on  a  credit ;  the  merchants  were  forced  to  this  by  the  great 
amount  of  goods  on  hand,  and  the  consequent  increased  compe- 
tition amongst  themselves  in  their  retail  business.  They  readi- 
ly credited  almost  any  one  up  to  about  the  value  of  his  prop- 
erty ;  and  when  the  debtor  was  unable  to  pay,  they  took  notes 
at  twelve  per  cent,  interest,  so  that  nearly  the  whole  people 


396  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

were  indebted  more  than  they  were  able  to  pay,  and  to  save 
themselves  from  being  sued  for  their  debts,  they  were  forced  to 
pay  a  ruinous  rate  of  interest  on  them. 

At  this  session,  also,  the  Mormon  charters  were  totally  re 
pealed  by  the  legislature.  This  was  then  supposed  to  be  a  rem 
edy  for  all  the  evils  of  Mormonism. 

In  1844— '5,  also,  the  legislature  undertook  various  reforms 
and  retrenchments.  They  passed  resolutions  calling  on  the  gov- 
ernor and  judges  to  relinquish  portions  of  their  salaries,  secured 
to  them  by  the  constitution.  The  governor  and  judges  refused. 
The  reply  of  the  judges  is  too  long  for  insertion  here  ;  but  I 
will  give  my  own,  as  it  was  a  shorter  document : — "  A  resolu- 
tion of  the  two  houses  has  been  communicated  to  me,  request- 
ing the  governor  and  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court  to  relin- 
quish to  the  State  such  an  amount  of  their  salaries  as  will  be 
equivalent  to  25  per  cent,  thereon,  to  begin  with  the  year  1845. 

"  The  mere  matter  of  money  with  me  is  of  but  little  con- 
cern. I  could  perhaps  live  as  much  to  my  satisfaction  upon  a 
little  as  upon  a  greater  amount.  And  if  I  could  be  left  to  act 
freely  and  voluntarily,  as  befits  the  incumbent  of  the  executive 
department,  one  of  the  independent  co-ordinate  departments  of 
the  government,  equal  in  its  sphere  to  the  legislature  in  theirs ; 
and  if  I  could  be  assured  of  payment  in  good  money  for  the 
residue  of  my  salary,  no  member  of  the  legislature  would  be 
more  willing  than  I  am  to  make  sacrifices  of  self-interest  at  the 
shrine  of  patriotism.  But  before  I  consent  to  this,  I  have  a 
right  to  be  assured,  that  whatever  sum  I  do  agree  to  receive, 
will  be  worth  something.  In  fact,  I  have  been  acting  upon  this 
principle  for  the  last  two  years,  by  receiving  less  salary  than 
was  guaranteed  by  the  laws  and  the  constitution.  It  seems  to 
me  that  a  true  economy  would  consist  in  providing  adequate 
revenues,  so  as  to  keep  auditor's  warrants  at  par.  Everything 
then  for  the  State  could  be  done  cheaper,  as  in  that  case  no  one 
would  have  to  be  shaved  by  the  brokers.  I  for  one  would  pre- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  397 

fer  a  reduction  of  salary,  and  thereby  save  a  portion  to  the 
State,  than  to  suffer  loss  on  auditor's  warrants  for  the  benefit 
of  brokers. 

"  In  making  these  observations,  I  do  not  intend  to  be  under- 
stood as  making  any  kind  of  promise  to  relinquish  any  portion 
of  my  salary.  This  I  state  for  the  sake  of  the  principle  which 
I  believe  is  involved  in  this  request  of  the  two  houses.  I  re- 
spectfully protest  against  the  right  of  the  legislature  to  make 
such  a  request.  There  is  a  principle  of  constitutional  law  of 
free  government,  of  the  separation  of  the  powers  of  government 
into  three  departments,  of  the  independence  of  each  one  depart- 
ment of  the  other  two,  and  of  the  system  of  checks  and  balances 
which  all  free  constitutions  must  contain,  which  ought  not  to 
allow  the  governor,  even  if  it  were  for  his  advantage,  to  com- 
ply with  your  resolution.  The  separation  of  the  powers  of 
government  into  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  departments, 
and  confiding  these  departments  to  separate  bodies  of  magis- 
tracy, so  that  each  may  be  exercised  independently  of  the  other, 
is  justly  esteemed  to  be  the  grandest  discovery  in  the  science 
of  government ;  and  the  practical  operation  of  this  discovery, 
in  modern  times,  has  done  more  for  human  liberty  than  all 
other  discoveries  put  together. 

"  With  a  view  to  secure  the  independence  of  the  executive 
and  judicial  departments,  the  Constitution  has  provided  that  the 
governor  and  judges  shall  receive  an  adequate  salary,  which 
shall  not  be  diminished  during  their  continuance  in  office.  It  is 
true  that  the  legislature  do  not  propose  a  reduction  of  salaries 
without  the  consent  of  the  incumbents,  nor  does  the  request  of 
your  honorable  bodies  express  on  its  face  any  threat  to  extort 
this  consent,  but  the  moral  influence  of  such  a  request,  coming 
as  it  does  from  a  numerous  assembly,  the  immediate  represen- 
tatives of  the  people,  and  composed  of  the  principal  men  in  the 
State,  it  might  have  been  supposed  would  carry  with  it  some- 
thing of  coercion  to  a  governor  and  judges,  anxious  for  a  good 


398  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

understanding  with  the  legislative  power,  and  for  the  good  opin- 
ion of  their  fellow-citizens.  In  this  mode  such  a  request  might 
amount  to  coercion.  There  are  other  modes  of  coercion  besides 
the  employment  of  physical  force.  An  appeal  to  the  interests, 
to  the  fears,  or  to  the  love  of  popularity,  inherent  in  each  de- 
partment, may  be  as  efficacious  in  destroying  the  balances  of 
the  Constitution,  as  violence  itself. 

"  Considering  the  matter  in  this  light ;  feeling  my  obligation 
under  the  Constitution  to  sustain  the  independence  of  the  execu- 
tive department,  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent,  and  being 
unwilling,  from  any  want  of  firmness  on  my  part,  to  be  acces- 
sory to  a  precedent,  which  I  believe  is  now  for  the  first  time 
attempted  in  the  United  States,  and  which,  if  followed  up,  may 
lead  to  a  consolidation  of  all  power  in  the  hands  of  a  single  de- 
partment, I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty,  at  the  risk  of  being  mis- 
interpreted, and  of  forfeiting  somewhat  of  the  good  will  of  my 
fellow-citizens,  respectfully  but  firmly  to  resist  this  temptation 
now  offered,  to  court  public  favor,  that  I  may  thereby  pre- 
serve the  independence  of  the  executive  department."* 

The  legislature,  then  following  up  these  projects  for  retrench- 
ment, attempted  to  remove  the  judges  by  address,  so  that 
whilst  the  offices  of  all  of  them  were  vacant,  their  salaries  could 
be  reduced.  They  reduced  the  salaries  of  all  the  other  officers 
of  the  government,  and  of  the  judges  thereafter  to  be  elected; 
and  they  agitated  a  bill  all  winter,  to  reduce  the  fees  of  the 
county  officers.  In  this  mode  they  lengthened  out  the  session 
for  more  than  a  month,  and  increased  their  own  pay  about 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  whilst  they  aimed  to  save  several 

*  The  resolution  calling  upon  the  governor  and  judges  to  relinquish 
a  portion  of  their  salaries,  was  written  by  Trumbull,  and  put  into  the 
hands  of  N.  W.  Nunnally,  Senator  from  Edgar  county,  to  be  offered  to 
the  Senate.  Mr.  Nunnally,  instead  of  making  himself  popular,  as  he 
supposed  he  would,  could  not  get  the  privilege  from  his  party  of  being 
a  candidate  for  re-election  two  years  afterwards. 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  899 

hundred  to  the  public  treasury.  The  rage  for  economy  was 
great  indeed,  the  members  appearing  to  think  that  the  State 
debt  might  be  paid  off  by  stealing  small  sums  from  the  already 
small  salaries  of  public  officers.  There  are  those  in  matters  of 
government,  as  well  as  in  religion,  who  tythe  annis,  mint,  and 
cummin,  and  neglect  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law.  Accord- 
ingly, the  members  who  were  the  most  fierce  for  this  kind  of 
economy,  had  no  capacity  to  see  that  the  canal  measure  was  a 
great  financial  measure,  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  State,  by 
means  of  which  five  millions  of  debt  will  be  paid ;  a  sum 
greater  than  could  be  paid  by  an  eternity  of  such  legislation  as 
was  proposed  by  them.  If  the  State  debt  is  ever  paid,  it  will 
not  be  done  by  the  puny  licks  of  this  description  of  econo- 
misers. 

Another  subject  of  interest  at  this  session  was  the  Shawnee- 
town  Bank.  After  the  failure  of  that  institution  in  1842,  the 
stock  in  it  had  been  purchased  by  a  company  of  speculators, 
who  caused  themselves  to  be  elected  president  and  directors. 
After  having  paid  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  it  yet  owed 
the  State  a  half  a  million  of  dollars  for  the  State  stock  in  it,  to 
be  paid  in  State  indebtedness.  In  anticipation  of  the  passage 
of  the  liquidation  law  of  1842-'3,  a  few  favored  directors  secret- 
ly borrowed  from  it  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  of  its  specie, 
with  which  to  purchase  State  bonds  to  pay  this  remaining  debt. 
The  money  was  sent  to  New  York,  and  invested  in  the  purchase 
of  scrip  and  three  hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand  dollars  of 
the  bonds,  which  had  been  hypothecated  with  Macalister  and 
Stebbins  in  1841.  The  reader  will  remember  that  $804,000 
of  these  bonds  were  hypothecated,  upon  which  the  State  receiv- 
ed $261,500.  The  law  authorized  them  to  be  sold,  but  not  to 
be  hypothecated.  The  few  favored  directors,  in  a  secret  meet- 
ing of  the  board,  paid  into  the  bank  $100,000  of  these  bonds, 
then  worth  thirty  cents  on  the  dollar,  in  discharge  of  their  notes 
for  the  $100,000  in  specie  previously  borrowed.  They  next 


400  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

paid  in  another  portion  of  them,  in  discharge  of  their  stock 
notes ;  and  amongst  others,  Orville  Sexton,  a  member  of  this 
legislature,  and  a  flaming  declaimer  against  bank  corruption,  had 
a  note  of  near  $10,000  paid  in  this  way.  The  whole  sum  of 
bonds,  being  now  the  property  of  the  bank,  or  of  the  private 
stockholders,  were  tendered  to  the  governor  in  the  spring  of 
1844,  in  payment  of  the  debt  from  the  bank  to  the  State.  There 
were  then  two  reasons  why  they  ought  to  have  been  refused. 
To  receive  them  was  to  defeat  the  law  for  a  settlement  with 
Macallister  and  Stebbins  ;  and  it  was  plain  that  the  State  was 
not  bound  to  pay  the  full  amount  of  their  face.  They  were  ac- 
cordingly refused.  But  in  the  fall  of  1844  it  became  fujly 
known  that  Macallister  and  Stebbins  would  never  be  able  to 
comply  with  the  law  for  their  relief;  that  the  president  of  the 
bank  was  about  to  return  these  bonds  to  New  York  ;  and  the 
bank  was  so  insolvent,  that  if  they  were  permanently  rejected 
and  suffered  to  pass  out  of  its  hands  and  beyond  its  control,  the 
State  would  never  get  anything  for  its  half  million  of  stock.  To 
keep  the  bonds  at  home,  subject  to  the  control  of  the  legisla- 
ture, I  entered  into  a  conditional  contract  with  the  bank  to  re- 
ceive them,  if  the  contract  was  ratified  by  the  legislature.  For 
this  prudent  and  judicious  measure,  I  was  much  abused  and  de- 
nounced at  the  time  by  many  ultra  democrats,  who  preferred 
that  the  State  should  lose  the  whole  of  its  stock  in  this  bank 
than  impliedly  to  sanction  the  conduct  of  its  officers. 

The  matter  was  referred  to  the  committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  on  banks  and  corporations ;  of  which  Dr.  An- 
derson of  Lawrence  county  had  been  appointed  chairman.  He 
was  a  man  who  acted  partly  from  spite,  but  mostly  from  a  self- 
ish policy.  He  had  seen  that  banks  were  wofully  unpopular 
with  the  people ;  and  that  many  men  had  successfully  ridden 
the  hobby  of  popular  prejudice  against  them  ;  and  he  now  de- 
termined to  have  his  turn  of  riding  also.  But  there  is  some 
art  in  riding  a  hobby  as  well  as  a  horse,  and  much  depends 


HISTOKY  OF   ILLINOIS.  401 

upon  the  time  when  you  mount  it.  A  man  of  sagacity  discov- 
ers a  hobby,  and  rides  it  as  long  as  the  popular  feeling  will 
carry  him  ;  he  then  throws  it  aside  and  gets  a  new  one.  The 
short-lived  and  variable  feelings  and  prejudices  of  the  public 
make  the  life  of  a  hobby  a  short  one.  The  master  spirit  rides 
it  only  whilst  the  public  mind  is  in  an  earnest  fervor  concerning 
it.  He  takes  it  when  it  is  young  and  active  ;  and  when  it  be- 
comes old  and  lame  he  leaves  it  for  another.  In  this  mode  he 
keeps  all  the  time  along  with  the  fervor  of  the  popular  mind  ; 
and  this  is  the  true  "  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men,  which,  taken  at 
the  flood,  leads  on  to  fortune."  The  people  of  Illinois  were 
still  much  against  banks ;  but  the  day  had  passed  when  hatred 
to  banks  was  the  one  idea  which  ruled  the  popular  mind.  In 
the  meantime,  the  Texas,  and  Oregon,  and  tariff  questions  had 
arisen,  and  the  master  equestrians  had  quit  the  banks,  for  one 
or  the  other  or  all  of  these.  But  not  so  with  the  small-fry  poli- 
ticians, who  never  perceive  the  advantages  of  a  hobby  until  it  is 
jaded  down  by  other  riders,  who  have  ridden  to  distinction  upon 
it ;  and  then  they  all  mount  on,  and  if  the  animal  be  not  already 
dead,  they  soon  exhaust  its  remaining  vitality  ;  and  find  them- 
selves again  trudging  along  on  foot.  On  this  occasion,  it  was 
pitiable  to  see  Dr.  Anderson  and  the  small  geniuses  of  his  tribe 
ungracefully  jolting  along  upon  their  worn-out  nags,  mimicking 
the  airs  of  accomplished  equestrians  upon  their  young  and  met- 
tlesome steeds.  Under  such  influences,  it  was  at  first  decided, 
by  a  majority  of  both  houses,  to  be  better  to  lose  the  whole 
amount  which  the  bank  owed  to  the  State  than  to  countenance 
in  the  least  degree  the  villany  of  its  officers  by  receiving  these 
bonds.  The  people,  however,  failed  to  appreciate  the  vast 
merits  of  these  members  at  the  next  election.  Not  over  a  half 
dozen  of  them  were  re-elected.  Dr.  Anderson  expected  to 
be  sent  to  Congress  at  least ;  but  failed  to  get  the  nomination 
of  his  party  even  for  the  legislature  of  1846,  there  not  being  a 
half  dozen  men  in  his  county  favorable  to  his  re-election.  And 


402  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

shortly  afterwards,  in  utter  rage  against  the  people  and  the  cor- 
ruptions of  the  democratic  party,  he  shook  the  dust  off  his  feet 
as  a  testimony  against  them,  anltL  departed  from  the  State. 
The  legislature  afterwards  allowed  these  bonds  to  be  received 
at  forty-eight  cents  to  the  dollar,  which  was  a  good  bargain  for 
the  State. 

The  population  of  Illinois  in  1845,  according  to  the  census  of 
that  year,  amounted  to  662,150  souls,  being  an  increase  in  five 
years  of  183,221. 


• 

risv  -wj' 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

The  city  of  Nauvoo  —  The  Temple—  New  causes  of  quarrel—  The  "  Oneness"  —  Anti-Mor- 
mon meeting  flred  at  by  themselves—  Character  of  the  anti-Mormons—New  mobs  — 
House  burning—  Sheriff's  posse  —  Backinstos  —  Plundering  —  McBratney  —  Death  of 
Worrell—  Daubeneyer—  Durfee—  Trial  of  the  sheriff  for  murder—  General  Hardin  sent 
over  with  500  men—  Stops  the  dis6rders  on  both  sides  —  Anti-Mormon  convention  — 
The  Mormons  agree  to  leave  the  State—  Major  Warren  with  two  companies  left 
as  a  guard  —  Good  conduct  of  Major  Warren  —  Indictments  against  the  twelve  apos- 
tles for  counterfeiting—  Exodus  of  the  Mormons—  Anti-Mormons  anxious  to  expel 
the  few  that  were  left—  Cause  of  a  new  quarrel—  Writs  sworn  out  —  Old  trick  of 
calling  the  posse  —  The  matter  adjusted  —  Mormon  vote  In  1846  —  New  excitements  — 
New  writs  sworn  out—  The  posae  again—  The  new  citizens  petition  for  protection- 
Order  to  Major  Parker—  Order  to  Mr.  Brayman  —  Treaty  between  the  parties  —  Not 
agreed  to  by  the  anti-Mormons  —  Mr.  Brayman's  letter  —  James  W.  Singleton  —  Thomas 
S.  Brockman  —  Order  to  Major  Flood  —  His  proceedings  under  it  —  Numbers  of  each 
party  —  Battles  —  Not  many  hurt  —  The  Mormons  surrender  the  city  —  Triumphant 
entry  of  the  anti-Mormons  —  Their  brutal  conduct  —  Sufferings  of  the  Mormons  —  Ex- 
citement against  the  anti-Mormons—Moderate  men  not  to  be  relied  on  in  times  of 
excitement  —  Difficulties  of  the  executive  —  Expedition  to  Nauvoo  —  The  anti-Mormon 
posse  dispersed  —  Violence  of  the  anti-Mormons  against  the  governor  —  Anti-Mormon 
meetings—  Their  resolutions  —  Anti-Mormon  committee  of  rogues  and  blackguards  — 
The  Irish  justice  and  constable  —  Captain  Allen's  expedition  to  Carthage  —  Major 
Weber  —  Attempts  to  arrest  a  spy—  Writs  sworn  out  to  arrest  him  and  Captain  Al- 
len—The old  trick  of  the  posse  again  —  Instability  of  popular  feeling—  No  disposition 
anywhere  to  assist,  but  a  disposition  everywhere  to  censure  government  for  not  per- 
forming impossibilities—  Popular  notions  of  martial  law—  Like  master  like  man  — 
Anarchy  and  despotism  —  Liberty  and  slavery. 

THE  Mormons  next  claim  our  attention.  Nauvoo  was  now 
a  city  of  about  15,000  inhabitants  and  was  fast  increasing,  as 
the  followers  of  the  prophet  were  pouring  into  it  from  all  parts 
of  the  world  ;  and  there  were  several  other  settlements  and  vil- 
lages of  Mormons  in  Hancock  county.  Nauvoo  was  scattered 
over  about  six  square  miles,  a  part  of  it  being  built  upon  the 
flat  skirting  and  fronting  on  the  Mississippi  river,  but  the  greater 
portion  of  it  upon  the  bluffs  back,  east  of  the  river.  The  great 


404  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

temple,  which  is  said  to  have  cost  a  million  of  dollars  in  money 
and  labor,  occupied  a  commanding  position  on  the  brow  of  this 
bluff,  and  overlooked  the  country  around  for  twenty  miles  in 
Illinois  and  Iowa.  This  temple  was  not  fashioned  after  any 
known  order  of  architecture.  The  Mormons  themselves  pre- 
tended to  believe  that  the  building  of  it  was  commenced  without 
any  previous  plan ;  and  that  the  master  builder,  from  day  to  day, 
during  the  progress  of  its  erection,  received  directions  immedi- 
ately from  heaven  as  to  the  plan  of  the  building ;  and  really  it 
looks  as  if  it  was  the  result  of  such  frequent  changes  as  would 
be  produced  by  a  daily  accession  of  new  ideas.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  church  architecture  of  a  sect  indicates  the  genius  and 
spirit  of  its  religion.  The  grand  and  solemn  structures  of  the 
Catholics,  point  to  the  towering  hierarchy,  and  imposing  cere- 
monies of  the  church  ;  the  low  and  broad  meeting-houses  of  the 
Methodists  formerly  shadowed  forth  their  abhorrence  of  gaudy 
decoration ;  and  their  unpretending  humility,  and  the  light,  airy, 
and  elegant  edifices  of  the  Presbyterians,  as  truly  indicate  the 
passion  for  education,  refinement,  and  polish,  amongst  that 
thrifty  and  enterprising  people.  If  the  genius  of  Mormonism 
were  tried  by  this  test,  as  exhibited  in  the  temple,  we  could 
only  pronounce  that  it  was  a  piece  of  patch-work,  variable, 
strange,  and  incongruous. 

During  the  summer  and  fall  of  1845,  there  were  several 
small  matters  to  increase  irritation  between  the  Mormons  and 
their  neighbors.  The  anti- Mormons  complained  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  larcenies  and  robberies.  The  Mormon  press  at  Nauvoo, 
and  the  anti-Mormon  papers  at  Warsaw,  Quincy,  Springfield, 
Alton,  and  St.  Louis,  kept  up  a  continual  fire  at  each  other ;  the 
anti-Mormons  all  the  time  calling  upon  the  people  to  rise  and 
expel,  or  exterminate  the  Mormons.  The  great  fires  at  Pitts- 
burg  and  in  other  cities  about  this  time,  were  seized  upon  by 
the  Mormon  press  to  countenance  the  assertion  that  the  Lord 
had  sent  them,  to  manifest  his  displeasure  against  the  Gentiles ; 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  405 

and  to  hint  that  all  other  places  which  might  countenance  the 
enemies  of  the  Mormons,  might  expect  to  be  visited  by  "  hot 
drops  "  of  the  same  description.  This  was  interpreted  by  the 
anti-Mormons  to  be  a  threat  by  Mormon  incendiaries,  to  burn 
down  all  cities  and  places  not  friendly  to  their  religion.  About 
this  time,  also,  a  suit  had  been  commenced  in  the  circuit  court 
of  the  United  States  against  some  of  the  twelve  apostles,  on  a 
note  given  in  Ohio.  The  deputy  marshal  went  to  summon  the 
defendants.  They  were  determined  not  to  be  served  with  pro- 
cess, and  a  great  meeting  of  their  people  being  called,  outrage- 
ously inflammatory  speeches  were  made  by  the  leaders ;  the 
marshal  was  threatened  and  abused  for  intending  to  serve  a 
lawful  process,  and  here  it  was  publicly  declared  and  agreed  to 
by  the  Mormons,  that  no  more  process  should  be  served  in 
Nauvoo. 

Also,  about  this  time,  a  leading  anti-Mormon  by  the  name  of 
Dr.  Marshall,  made  an  assault  upon  Gen.  Deming,  the  sheriff 
of  the  county,  and  was  killed  by  the  sheriff  in  repelling  the  as- 
sault. The  sheriff  was  arrested  and  held  to  bail  by  Judge 
Young,  for  manslaughter :  though  as  he  had  acted  strictly  in 
self-defence,  no  one  seriously  believed  him  to  be  guilty  of  any 
crime  whatever.  But  Dr.  Marshall  had  many  friends  disposed 
to  revenge  his  death,  the  rage  of  the  people  ran  very  high,  for 
which  reason  it  was  thought  best  by  the  judge  to  hold  the 
sheriff  to  bail  for  something,  to  save  him  from  being  sacrificed 
to  the  public  fury. 

Not  long  after  the  trials  of  the  supposed  murderers  of  the 
Smiths,  it  was  discovered  on  a  trial  of  the  right  of  property 
near  Lima,  in  Adams  county,  by  Mormon  testimony,  that  that 
people  had  an  institution  in  their  church  called  a  "  Oneness," 
which  was  composed  of  an  association  of  five  persons,  over 
whom  "  one"  was  appointed  as  a  kind  of  guardian.  This  "  one" 
as  trustee  for  the  rest,  was  to  own  all  the  property  of  the  asso- 
ciation ;  so  that  if  it  were  levied  upon  by  an  execution  for  debt, 


406  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  Mormons  could  prove  that  the  property  belonged  to  one  or 
the  other  of  the  parties,  as  might  be  required  to  defeat  the  exe- 
cution. And  not  long  after  this  discovery  in  the  fall  of  1845, 
the  anti-Mormons  of  Lima  and  Green  Plains,  held  a  meeting  to 
devise  means  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Mormons  from  their 
neighborhood.  They  appointed  some  persons  of  their  own 
number  to  fire  a  few  shots  at  the  house  where  they  were  assem- 
bled ;  but  to  do  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  hurt  none  who  attended 
the  meeting.  The  meeting  was  held,  the  house  was  fired  at, 
but  so  as  to  hurt  no  one ;  and  the  anti-Mormons,  suddenly 
breaking  up  their  meeting,  rode  all  over  the  country  spreading 
the  dire  alarm,  that  the  Mormons  had  commenced  the  work  of 
massacre  and  death. 

This  startling  intelligence  soon  assembled  a  mob.  But  before 
I  relate  what  further  was  done,  I  must  give  some  account  of  the 
anti-Mormons.  I  had  a  good  opportunity  to  know  the  early 
settlers  of  Hancock  county.  I  had  attended  the  circuit  courts 
there  as  States-attorney,  from  1830,  when  the  county  was  first 
organized,  up  to  the  year  1834  ;  and  to  my  certain  knowledge 
the  early  settlers,  with  some  honorable  exceptions,  were,  in  pop- 
ular language,  hard  cases.  In  the  year  1834,  one  Dr.  Galland 
was  a  candidate  for  the  legislature,  in  a  district  composed  of 
Hancock,  Adams,  and  Pike  counties.  He  resided  in  the  county 
of  Hancock,  and  as  he  had  in  the  early  part  of  his  life  been  a 
notorious  horse-thief  and  counterfeiter,  belonging  to  the  Massac 
gang,  and  was  then  no  pretender  to  integrity,  it  was  useless  to 
deny  the  charge.  In  all  his  speeches  he  freely  admitted  the 
fact,  but  came  near  receiving  a  majority  of  votes  in  his  own 
county  of  Hancock.  I  mention  this  to  show  the  character  of 
the  people  for  integrity.  From  this  time  down  to  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Mormons  there,  and  for  four  years  afterwards,  I 
had  no  means  of  knowing  about  the  future  increase  of  the  Han- 
cock people.  But  having  passed  my  whole  life  on  the  frontiers, 
on  the  outer  edge  of  the  settlements,  I  have  frequently  seen  that 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  407 

a  few  first  settlers  would  fix  the  character  of  a  settlement  for 
good  or  for  bad,  for  many  years  after  its  commencement.  If 
bad  men  began  the  settlement,  bad  men  would  be  attracted  to 
them,  upon  the  well-known  principle  that  "  birds  of  a  feather 
will  flock  together."  Rogues  will  find  each  other  out,  and  so 
will  honest  men.  From  all  which  it  appears  extremely  proba- 
ble, that  the  later  immigrants  were  many  of  them  attracted  to 
Hancock  by  a  secret  sympathy  between  them  and  the  early  set- 
tlers. And  so  it  may  appear  that  the  Mormons  themselves 
may  have  been  induced  to  select  Hancock  as  the  place  of  their 
settlement,  rather  than  many  other  places  where  they  were 
strongly  solicited  to  settle,  by  the  promptings  of  a  secret  in- 
stinct, which,  without  much  penetration,  enables  men  to  discern 
their  fellows. 

The  mob  at  Lima  proceeded  to  warn  the  Mormons  to  leave 
the  neighborhood,  and  threatened  them  with  fire  and  sword  if 
they  remained.  A  very  poor  class  of  Mormons  resided  here, 
and  it  is  very  likely  that  the  other  inhabitants  were  annoyed 
beyond  further  endurance,  by  their  little  larcenies  and  rogueries. 
The  Mormons  refused  to  remove ;  the  m.ob  proceeded  to  burn 
down  their  houses;  and  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
houses  and  hovels  were  burnt,  the  inmates  being  obliged  to  flee 
for  their  lives.  They  fled  to  Nauvoo  in  a  state  of  utter  desti- 
tution, carrying  their  women  and  children,  aged  and  sick  (it 
was  then  the  height  of  the  sickly  season),  along  with  them  as 
best  they  could.  The  sight  of  these  miserable  creatures,  aroused 
the  wrath  of  the  Mormons  of  Nauvoo.  As  soon  as  authentic 
intelligence  of  these  events  reached  Springfield,  I  ordered  Gen. 
Hardin  to  raise  a  force,  and  restore  the  rule  of  law.  But  whilst 
this  force  was  gathering,  the  sheriff  of  the  county  had  taken  the 
matter  in  hand.  Gen.  Deming  had  died  not  long  after  the  death 
of  Dr.  Marshall,  and  the  Mormons  had  elected  Jacob  B.  Back- 
instos  to  be  sheriff  in  his  place.  This  Backinstos  formerly  re- 
sided in  Sangamon  county.  There  he  had  credit  to  get  a  stock 


408  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

of  goods,  and  set  up  as  a  merchant.  The  goods  were  imme- 
diately transferred  to  his  brother,  leaving  the  debt  for  them  un- 
paid. Here,  too,  he  became  acquainted  with  Judge  Douglass, 
and  here  commenced  that  indissoluble  friendship  between  them, 
which  has  continued  inviolate  ever  since.  Douglass  was  ap- 
pointed to  hold  the  courts  in  Hancock  county ;  and  Backinstos, 
having  broken  up  in  Sangamon,  had  gone  over  to  Hancock 
seeking  his  fortunes.  His  brother  had  already  married  a  niece 
of  the  prophet,  and  Backinstos  immediately  attached  himself  to 
the  interests  of  the  Mormons.  Backinstos  was  a  smart-looking, 
shrewd,  cunning,  plausible  man,  of  such  easy  manners,  that  he 
was  likely  to  have  great  influence  with  the  Mormons.  In  due 
time  Judge  Douglass  appointed  him  to  be  clerk  of  the  circuit 
court,  and  this  gave  him  almost  absolute  power  with  that  peo- 
ple in  all  political  contests.  In  1844,  Backinstos  and  a  Mormon 
elder  were  elected  to  the  legislature;  in  1845,  he  was  elected 
sheriff,  in  place  of  Gen.  Deming ;  and,  finally,  to  reward  him 
for  his  great  public  services,  he  was  appointed  a  captain  of  a 
rifle  company  in  the  United  States  army.  But  being  just  now 
regarded  as  the  political  leader  of  the  Mormons,  Backinstos  was 
hated  with  a  sincere  and  thorough  hatred  by  the  opposite  party. 
When  the  burning  of  houses  commenced,  the  great  body  of 
the  anti-Mormons  expressed  themselves  strongly  against  it,  giv- 
ing hopes  thereby  that  a  posse  of  anti-Mormons  could  be  raised 
to  put  a  stop  to  such  incendiary  and  riotous  conduct.  But  when 
they  were  called  on  by  the  new  sheriff,  not  a  man  of  them  turn- 
ed out  to  his  assistance,  many  of  them  no  doubt  being  influ- 
enced by  their  hatred  of  the  sheriff.  Backinstos  then  went  to 
Nauvoo,  where  he  raised  a  posse  of  several  hundred  armed 
Mormons,  with  which  he  swept  over  the  county,  took  possession 
of  Carthage,  and  established  a  permanent  guard  there.  The 
anti-Mormons  everywhere  fled  from  their  homes  before  the 
sheriff,  some  of  them  to  Iowa  and  Missouri,  and  others  to  the 
neighboring  counties  in  Illinois.  The  sheriff  was  unable  or  un 


HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS.  409 

willing  to  bring  any  portion  of  the  rioters  to  a  battle,  or  to  ar- 
rest any  of  them  for  their  crimes.  The  posse  came  near  sur- 
prising one  small  squad,  but  ifliey  made  their  escape,  all  but  one, 
before  they  could  be  attacked.  This  one,  named  McBratney, 
was  shot  down  by  some  of  the  posse  in  advance,  by  whom  he 
was  hacked  and  mutilated  as  though  he  had  been  murdered  by 
the  Indians. 

The  sheriff  also  was  in  continual  peril  of  his  life  from  the 
anti-Mormons,  who  daily  threatened  him  with  death  the  first 
opportunity.  As  he  was  going  in  a  buggy  from  Warsaw  in  the 
direction  of  Nauvoo,  he  was  pursued  by  three  or  four  men  to  a 
place  in  the  road  where  some  Mormon  teams  were  standing. 
Backinstos  passed  the  teams  a  few  rods,  and  then  stopping,  the 
pursuers  came  up  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  when  they 
were  fired  upon,  with  an  unerring  aim,  by  some  one  concealed 
not  far  to  one  side  of  them.  By  this  fire,  Franklin  A.  Worrell 
was  killed.  He  was  the  same  man  who  had  commanded  the 
guard  at  the  jail  at  the  time  the  Smiths  were  assassinated ;  and 
there  made  himself  conspicuous  in  betraying  his  trust,  by  con- 
senting to  the  assassination.  It  is  believed  that  Backinstos  ex- 
pected to  be  pursued  and  attacked,  and  had  previously  stationed 
some  men  in  ambush,  to  fire  upon  his  pursuers.  He  was  after- 
wards indicted  for  the  supposed  murder,  and  procured  a  change 
of  venue  to  Peoria  county,  where  he  was  acquitted  of  the  charge. 
About  this  time,  also,  the  Mormons  murdered  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Daubeneyer,  without  any  apparent  provocation ;  and 
another  anti-Mormon  named  Wilcox  was  murdered  in  Nauvoo, 
as  it  was  believed,  by  order  of  the  twelve  apostles.  The  anti- 
Mormons  also  committed  one  murder.  Some  of  them,  under 
Backman,  set  fire  to  some  straw  near  a  barn  belonging  to  Dur- 
fee,  an  old  Mormon  seventy  years  old ;  and  then  lay  in  ambush 
until  the  old  man  came  out  to  extinguish  the  fire,  when  they 
shot  him  dead  from  their  place  of  concealment.  The  perpetra- 
tors of  this  murder  were  arrested  and  brought  before  an  anti- 

18 


410  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Mormon  justice  of  the  peace,  and  were  acquitted,  though  their 
guilt  was  sufficiently  apparent. 

During  the  ascendency  of  the  sheriff  and  the  absence  of  the 
anti-Mormons  from,  their  houses,  the  people  who  had  been  burnt 
out  of  their  houses  assembled  in  Nauvoo,  from  whence,  with 
many  others,  they  sallied  forth  and  ravaged  the  country,  steal- 
ing and  plundering  whatever  wns  convenient  to  carry  or  drive 
away.  When  informed  of  these  proceedings,  I  hastened  to 
Jacksonville,  where,  in  a  conference  with  Gen.  Hardin,  Major 
Warren,  Judge  Douglass,  and  the  Attorney-General  Mr.  Mc- 
Dougall,  it  was  agreed  that  these  gentlemen  should  proceed  to 
Hancock  in  all  haste,  with  whatever  forces  had  been  raised,  few 
or  many,  and  put  an  end  to  these  disorders.  It  was  now  appa- 
rent that  neither  party  in  Hancock  could  be  trusted  with  the 
power  to  keep  the  peace.  It  was  also  agreed  that  all  these  gen- 
tlemen should  unite  their  influence  with  mine  to  induce  the  Mor- 
mons to  leave  the  State.  Gen.  Hardin  lost  no  time  in  raising 
three  or  four  hundred  volunteers,  and  when  he  got  to  Carthage 
he  found  a  Mormon  guard  in  possession  of  the  courthouse. 
This  force  he  ordered  to  disband  and  disperse  in  fifteen  minutes. 
The  plundering  parties  of  Mormons  were  stopped  in  their  rav- 
ages. The  fugitive  anti-Mormons  were  recalled  to  their  homes, 
and  all  parties  above  four  in  number  on  either  side  were  pro- 
hibited from  assembling  and  marching  over  the  country. 

Whilst  Gen.  Hardin  was  at  Carthage,  a  convention  previous- 
ly appointed  assembled  at  that  place,  composed  of  delegates 
from  the  eight  neighboring  counties.  The  people  of  the  neigh- 
boring counties  were  alarmed  lest  the  anti-Mormons  should  en- 
tirely desert  Hancock,  and  by  that  means  leave  one  of  the 
largest  counties  of  the  State  to  be  possessed  entirely  by  Mor- 
mons. This  they  feared  would  bring  the  surrounding  counties 
into  immediate  collision  with  them.  They  had  therefore  ap- 
pointed this  convention  to  consider  measures  for  the  expulsion 
of  the  Mormons.  The  twelve  apostles  had  now  become  satis- 


HISTOKY  OF   ILLINOIS.  411 

fied  that  the  Mormons  could  not  remain,  or  if  they  did,  the  lead- 
ers would  be  compelled  to  abandon  the  sway  and  dominion  they 
exercised  over  them.  They  had  now  become  convinced  that  the 
kind  of  Mahometanism  which  they  sought  to  establish  could 
never  be  established  in  the  near  vicinity  of  a  people  whose  mor- 
als and  prejudices  were  all  outraged  and  shocked  by  it,  unless 
indeed  they  were  prepared  to  establish  it  by  force  of  arms. 
Through  the  intervention  of  Gen.  Hardin,  acting  under  instruc- 
tions from  me,  an  agreement  was  made  between  the  hostile  par- 
ties for  the  voluntary  removal  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Mor- 
mons in  the  spring  of  1846.  The  two  parties  agreed  that,  in 
the  meantime,  they  would  seek  to  make  no  arrests  for  crimes 
previously  committed ;  and  on  my  part  I  agreed  that  an  armed 
force  should  be  stationed  in  the  county  to  keep  the  peace.  The 
presence  of  such  a  force,  and  amnesty  from  prosecutions  on  all 
sides,  were  insisted  on  by  the  Mormons,  that  they  might  devote 
all  their  time  and  energies  to  prepare  for  their  removal.  Gen. 
Hardin  first  diminished  his  force  to  a  hundred  men,  leaving 
Major  Wm.  B.  Warren  in  command.  And  this  force  being 
further  diminished  during  the  winter  to  fifty,  and  then  to  ten 
men,  was  kept  up  until  the  last  of  May,  1846.  This  force  was 
commanded  with  great  efficiency  and  prudence  during  all  this 
winter  and  spring  by  Major  Warren ;  and  with  it  he  was  enabled 
to  keep  the  turbulent  spirit  of  faction  in  check,  the  Mormons 
well  knowing  that  it  would  be  supported  by  a  much  larger  force 
whenever  the  governor  saw  proper  to  call  for  it.  In  the  mean- 
time, they  somewhat  repented  of  their  bargain,  and  desired 
Major  Warren  to  be  withdrawn.  Backinstos  was  anxious  to 
be  again  left  at  the  head  of  his  posse,  to,  goster  over  the  county 
and  to  take  vengeance  on  his  enemies.  The  anti-Mormons  were 
also  dissatisfied,  because  the  State  force  preserved  a  threatening 
aspect  towards  them  as  well  as  towards  the  Mormons.  He  was 
always  ready  to  enforce  arrests  of  criminals  for  new  offences  on 
either  side ;  and  this  pleased  neither  the  Mormons  nor  the  anti- 


412  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Mormons.  Civil  war  was  on  the  very  point  of  breaking  out 
more  than  a  dozen  times  during  the  winter.  Both  parties  com- 
plained of  Major  Warren ;  but!,  well  knowing  that  he  was  man- 
fully doing  his  duty,  in  one  of  the  most  difficult  and  vexatious 
services  ever  devolved  upon  a  militia  officer,  steadily  sustained 
him  against  the  complaints  on  both  sides.  It  is  but  just  to  Ma- 
jor Warren  to  say  here,  that  he  gained  a  lasting  credit  with  all 
substantial  citizens  for  his  able  and  prudent  conduct  during  this 
winter.  Of  General  Hardin,  too,  it  is  but  just  to  say,  that  his 
expedition  this  time  had  the  happiest  results.  The  greater  part 
of  the  military  tract  was  saved  by  it  from  the  horrors  of  a  civil 
war  in  the  winter  time,  when  much  misery  would  have  followed 
from  it,  by  the  dispersion  of  families  and  the  destruction  of 
property. 

During  the  winter  of  1845-'6  the  Mormons  made  the  most 
prodigious  preparations  for  removal.  All  the  houses  in  Nau- 
voo,  and  even  the  temple,  were  converted  into  work-shops ;  and 
before  spring,  more  than  twelve  thousand  wagons  were  in  readi- 
ness. The  people  from  all  parts  of  the  country  flocked  to 
Nauvoo  to  purchase  houses  and  farms,  which  were  sold  extreme- 
ly low,  lower  than  the  prices  at  a  sheriff's  sale,  for  money, 
wagons,  horses,  oxen,  cattle,  and  other  articles  of  personal  prop- 
erty, which  might  be  needed  by  the  Mormons  hi  their  exodus 
into  the  wilderness.  By  the  middle  of  May  it  was  estimated 
that  sixteen  thousand  Mormons  had  crossed  the  Mississippi  and 
taken  up  their  line  of  march  with  their  personal  property,  their 
wives  and  little  ones,  westward  across  the  continent  to  Oregon 
or  California ;  leaving  behind  them  in  Nauvoo  a  small  remnant 
of  a  thousand  souls,  being  those  who  were  unable  to  sell  their 
property,  or  who  having  no  property  to  sell  were  unable  to  get 
away. 

The  twelve  apostles  went  first  with  about  two  thousand  of  their 
followers.  Indictments  had  been  found  against  nine  of  them  in 
the  circuit  court  of  the  United  States  for  the  district  of  Illinois, 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  413 

at  its  December  term,  1845,  for  counterfeiting  the  current  coin 
of  the  United  States.  The  United  States  Marshal  had  applied 
to  me  for  a  militia  force  to  arrest  them ;  but  in  pursuance  of 
the  amnesty  agreed  on  for  old  offences,  believing  that  the  ar- 
rest of  the  accused  would  prevent  the  removal  of  the  Mormons, 
and  thafc  if  arrested  there  was  not  the  least  chance  that  any  of 
them  would  ever  be  convicted,  I  declined  the  application  un- 
less regularly  called  upon  by  the  President  of  the  United  States 
according  to  law.  It  was  generally  agreed  that  it  would  be  im- 
politic to  arrest  the  leaders  and  thus  put  an  end  to  the  prepara- 
tions for  removal,  when  it  was  notorious  that  none  of  them 
could  be  convicted ;  for  they  always  commanded  evidence  and 
witnesses  enough  to  make  a  conviction  impossible.  But  with  a 
view  to  hasten  their  removal  they  were  made  to  believe  that 
the  President  would  order  the  regular  army  to  Nauvoo  as  soon 
as  the  navigation  opened  in  the  spring.  This  had  its  intended 
effect ;  the  twelve,  with  about  two  thousand  of  their  followers, 
immediately  crossed  the  Mississippi  before  the  breaking  up  of 
the  ice.  But  before  this  the  deputy  marshal  had  sought  to  ar- 
rest the  accused  without  success. 

Notwithstanding  but  few  of  the  Mormons  remained  behind, 
after  June,  1846,  the  anti-Mormons  were  no  less  anxious  for 
their  expulsion  by  force  of  arms ;  being  another  instance  of  a 
party  not  being  satisfied  with  the  attainment  of  its  wishes  un- 
less brought  about  by  themselves,  and  by  measures  of  their 
own.  It  was  feared  that  the  Mormons  might  vote  at  the  Au- 
gust election  of  that  year ;  and  that  enough  of  them  yet  re- 
mained to  control  the  elections  in  the  county,  and  perhaps  in 
the  district  for  Congress.  They,  therefore,  took  measures  to 
get  up  a  new  quarrel  with  the  remaining  Mormons.  And  for 
this  purpose  they  attacked  and  severely  whipped  a  party  of 
eight  or  ten  Mormons,  which  had  been  sent  out  into  the  coun- 
try to  harvest  some  wheat  fields  in  the  neighborhood  of  Pon- 
toosuc,  and  who  had  provoked  the  wrath  of  the  settlement  by 


414  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

hallooing,  yelling,  and  other  arrogant  behavior.  Writs  were 
sworn  out  in  Nauvoo  against  the  men  of  Pontoosuc,  who  were 
arrested  and  kept  for  several  days  under  strict  guard,  until  they 
gave  bail.  Then  in  their  turn,  they  swore  out  writs  for  the  ar- 
rest of  the  constable  and  posse  who  had  made  the  first  arrest, 
for  false  imprisonment.  The  Mormon  posse  were  no  doubt 
really  afraid  to  be  arrested,  believing  that  instead  of  being  tried 
they  would  be  murdered.  This  made  an  excuse  for  the  anti- 
Mormons  to  assemble  a  posse  of  several  hundred  men  to  assist 
in  making  the  arrest ;  but  the  matter  was  finally  adjusted  with- 
out any  one  being  taken.  A  committee  of  anti-Mormons  was 
sent  into  Nauvoo,  who  reported  that  the  Mormons  were  making 
every  possible  preparation  for  removal ;  and  the  leading  Mor- 
mons on  their  part  agreed  that  their  people  should  not  vote  at 
the  next  election. 

The  August  election  came  on  shortly  afterwards  and  the 
Mormons  all  voted  the  whole  democratic  ticket.  I  have  since 
been  informed  by  Babbitt,  the  Mormon  elder  and  agent  for  the 
sale  of  church  property,  that  they  were  induced  to  vote  this 
time  from  the  following  considerations :  The  President  of  the 
United  States  had  permitted  the  Mormons  to  settle  on  the  In- 
dian lands  on  the  Missouri  river,  and  had  taken  five  hundred 
of  them  into  the  service  as  soldiers  in  the  war  with  Mexico ; 
and  in  consequence  of  these  favors  the  Mormons  felt  under 
obligation  to  vote  for  democrats  in  support  of  the  administra- 
tion ;  and  so  determined  were  they  that  their  support  of  the 
President  should  be  efficient,  that  they  all  voted  three  or  four 
times  each  for  member  €>f  Congress. 

This  vote  of  the  Mormons  enraged  the  whigs  anew  against 
them ;  the  probability  that  they  might  attempt  to  remain  per- 
manently in  the  country,  and  the  certainty  that  many  design- 
ing persons  for  selfish  purposes  were  endeavoring  to  keep  them 
there,  revived  all  the  excitement  which  had  ever  existed  against 
that  people.  In  pursuance  of  the  advice  and  under  the  direo- 


HISTORY  OF,  ILLINOIS.  415 

tion  of  Archibald  Williams,  a  distinguished  lawyer  and  whig 
politician  of  Quincy,  writs  were  again  sworn  out  for  the  arrest 
of  persons  in  Nauvoo,  on  various  charges.  But  to  create  a  ne- 
cessity for  a  great  force  to  make  the  arrests,  it  was  freely  ad- 
mitted by  John  Carlin,  the  constable  sent  in  with  the  writs, 
that  the  prisoners  would  be  murdered  if  arrested  and  carried 
out  of  the  city.  This  John  Carlin,  under  a  promise  to  be  elect- 
ed recorder  in  the  place  of  a  Jack  Mormon  recorder  to  be  driven 
away,  was  appointed  a  special  constable  to  make  the  arrests. 
And  now  the  individuals  sought  to  be  arrested  were  openly 
threatened  to  be  murdered.  The  special  constable  went  to 
Nauvoo  with  the  writs  in  his  hands,  the  accused  declined  to  sur- 
render. And  now  having  failed  to  make  the  arrests,  the  con- 
stable began  to  call  out  the  posse  comitatus.  This  was  about 
the  1st  of  September,  1846.  The  posse  soon  amounted  to  sev- 
eral hundred  men.  The  Mormons  in  their  turn  swore  out 
several  writs  for  the  arrest  of  leading  anti-Mormons,  and  under 
pretence  of  desiring  to  execute  them,  called  out  a  posse  of 
Mormons.  Here  was  writ  against  writ ;  constable  against  con- 
stable ;  law  against  law,  and  posse  against  posse. 

Whilst  the  parties  were  assembling  their  forces  the  trustees 
of  Nauvoo  being  new  citizens,  not  Mormons,  applied  to  the 
governor  for  a  militia  officer  to  be  sent  over  with  ten  men,  they 
supposing  that  this  small  force  would  dispense  with  the  services 
of  the  civil  posse  on  either  side.  There  was  such  a  want  of 
confidence  on  all  sides  that  no  one  would  submit  to  be  arrested 
by  an  adversary,  for  fear  of  assassination.  This  small  force  it 
was  supposed  would  restore  confidence  and  order.  And  here 
again  was  a  difficulty,  who  was  to  be  sent  on  this  delegate  ser- 
vice. General  Hardin,  Major  Warren,  Colonel  Weatherford 
and  Colonel  Baker,  had  gone  to  the  Mexican  war.  These  had 
been  the  officers  upon  whom  I  had  relied  in  all  previous  emer- 
gencies ;  and  they  were  well  qualified  for  command.  And  here 
I  must  remark  that  the  President  in  May,  1846,  called  for  four 


416  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

regiments  of  volunteers  from  Illinois  for  the  Mexican  war.  The 
call  was  no  sooner  published  in  Illinois,  than  nine  regiments  of- 
fered their  services.  Those  of  them  who  were  doomed  to  stay 
at  home  were  more  discontented  than  men  usually  are  who  are 
drafted  into  the  armies  of  their  country. 

And  here,  too,  I  will  remark,  that  the  laws  do  not  allow  the 
governor  to  exercise  his  own  best  judgment  in  selecting  the 
most  fit  person  to  command.  The  militia  themselves  elect 
their  officers,  and  all  the  choice  which  is  left  to  the  governor,  is 
to  select  one  already  elected.  In  looking  round  over  the  State 
for  this  purpose,  the  choice  fell  upon  Major  Parker  of  Fulton 
county.  Major  Parker  was  a  whig,  and  was  selected  partly  for 
that  reason,  believing  that  a  whig  now,  as  had  been  the  case 
before  with  Gen.  Hardin  and  Major  Warren,  would  Ijave  more 
influence  in  restraining  the  anti-Mormons  than  a  democrat.  But 
Major  Parker's  character  was  unknown  out  of  his  own  county. 
Everywhere  else  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  he  was  a  demo- 
crat, and  had  been  sent  over  to  Hancock  to  intrigue  with  the 
Mormons.  The  whig  newspapers  immediately  let  loose  floods 
of  abuse  upon  him,  both  in  this  State  and  in  Missouri,  which 
completely  paralyzed  his  power  to  render  any  effectual  service. 
The  constable's  posse  refused  to  give  place  to  him,  and  the  con- 
stable openly  declared  that  he  cared  but  little  for  the  arrests ; 
by  which  it  was  apparent  that  they  intended  from  the  first  to 
use  the  process  of  the  law  only  as  a  cover  to  their  design  of  ex- 
pelling the  Mormons. 

The  posse  continued  to  increase  until  it  numbered  about 
eight  hundred  men ;  and  whilst  it  was  getting  ready  to  march 
into  the  city,  it  was  represented  to  me  by  another  committee, 
that  the  new  citizens  of  Nauvoo  were  themselves  divided  into 
two  parties,  the  one  siding  with  the  Mormons,  the  other  with 
their  enemies.  The  Mormons  threatened  the  disaffected  new 
citizens  with  death,  if  they  did  not  join  in  the  defence  of  the 
city.  For  this  reason  I  sent  over  M.  Braymau,  Esq.,  a  judi- 


HISTORY  OP  ILLINOIS.  417 

cious  citizen  of  Springfield,  with  suitaole  orders  restraining  all 
compulsion  in  forcing  the  citizens  to  join  the  Mormons  against 
their  will,  and  generally  to  inquire  into  and  report  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  quarrel. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Brayman  arrived  there,  he  persuaded  the 
leaders  on  each  side  into  an  adjustment  of  the  quarrel.  It  was 
agreed  that  the  Mormons  should  immediately  surrender  their 
arms  to  some  person  to  be  appointed  to  receive  them,  and  to 
be  redelivered  when  they  left  the  State,  and  that  they  would 
remove  from  the  State  hi  two  months.  This  treaty  was  agreed  to 
by  Gen.  Singleton,  Col.  Chittenden  and  others,  on  the  side  of  the 
anties,  and  by  Major  Parker  and  some  leading  Mormons  on  the 
other  side.  But  when  the  treaty  was  submitted  for  ratification 
to  the  anti-Mormon  forces,  it  was  rejected  by  a  small  majority. 
Gen.  Singleton  and  Col.  Chittenden,  with  a  proper  self-respect, 
immediately  withdrew  from  command ;  they  not  being  the  first 
great  men  placed  at  the  head  of  affairs  at  the  beginning  of  vio- 
lence, who  have  been  hurled  from  their  places  before  the  popu- 
lar frenzy  had  run  its  course.  And  with  them  also  great 
Archibald  Williams,  the  prime  mover  of  the  enterprise,  he  not 
being  the  first  man  who  has  got  up  a  popular  commotion,  and 
failed  to  govern  it  afterwards.  Indeed,  the  whole  history  of 
revolutions  and  popular  excitements  leading  to  violence,  is  full 
of  instances  like  these.  Mr.  Brayman,  the  same  day  of  the  re- 
jection of  the  treaty,  reported  to  me  that  nearly  one-half  of  the 
anti-Mormons  would  abandon  the  enterprise,  and  retire  with 
their  late  commanders,  "  leaving  a  set  of  hair-brained  fools  to 
be  flogged  or  to  disperse  at  their  leisure."  It  turned  out,  how- 
ever, that  the  calculations  of  Mr.  Brayman  were  not  realized  ; 
for  when  Singleton  and  Chittenden  retired,  Thomas  S.  ^rock- 
man  was  put  in  command  of  the  posse.  This  Brockman  was  a 
Campbellite  preacher,  nominally  belonging  to  the  democratic 
party.  He  was  a  large,  awkward,  uncouth,  ignorant,  semi-bar- 
barian, ambitious  of  office,  and  bent  upon  acquiring  notoriety. 

18* 


418  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

• 

He  had  been  county  commissioner  of  Brown  county,  and  in  that 
capacity  had  let  out  a  contract  for  building  the  court-house,  and 
it  was  afterwards  ascertained  had  let  the  contract  to  himself. 
He  managed  to  get  paid  in  advance,  and  then  built  such  an  in- 
ferior building,  that  the  county  had  not  received  it  up  to  Dec. 
1846.  He  had  also  been  a  collector  of  taxes,  for  which  he  was 
a  defaulter,  and  his  lands  were  sold  whilst  I  was  governor,  to 
pay  a  judgment  obtained  against  him  for  moneys  collected  by 
him.  To  the  bitterness  of  his  religious  prejudices  against  the 
Mormons,  he  added  a  hatred  of  their  immoral  practices,  prob- 
ably because  they  differed  from  his  own.  Such  was  the  man 
who  was  now  at  the  head  of  the  anti-Mormons,*  who  were 
about  as  numerous  in  camp  as  ever. 

After  the  appointment  of  Brockman,  I  was  not  enabled  to 
hear  in  any  authentic  shape  of  the  movements  on  either  side, 
until  the  anti-Mormon  forces  had  arrived  near  the  suburbs  of 
the  city,  and  were  about  ready  to  commence  an  attack.  The 
information  which  was  received,  was  by  mere  rumor  of  travel- 
lers, or  by  the  newspapers  from  St.  Louis.  And  I  will  remark 
that  during  none  of  these  difficulties,  have  I  been  able  to  get 
letters  and  despatches  from  Nauvoo  by  the  United  States  mail, 
coming  as  it  was  obliged  to  do,  through  the  anti-Mormon  set- 
tlements and  post  offices. 

*  To  the  credit  of  the  Campbellites  I  record,  that  after  this  they  si- 
lenced Brockman  from  preaching.  Before  this  time,  he  had  frequently 
been  a  candidate  for  office  without  success.  In  1847,  he  thought  he 
could  be  elected  to  the  convention  to  amend  the  constitution,  from 
Brown  county,  upon  the  glory  he  had  acquired  in  the  Mormon  wars. 
He  was  nominated  by  a  small  meeting  of  democrats ;  and,  in  a  county 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  majority  of  democrats,  he  was  beaten  by  a 
whig  by  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  majority.  *  * 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  419 

But  soon  after  the  anties  had  arrived  with  their  force  near 
Nauvoo,  and  after  some  little  skirmishing,  Mr.  Brayman  came 
to  Springfield  with  a  request  for  further  assistance  in  defence  of 
the  city.  It  was  now  too  late  to  call  forces  from  a  distance,  if 
they  had  been  ever  so  willing  to  come.  It  was  obvious  that  if 
any  new  forces  were  to  be  raised,  they  must  come  from  the 
near  neighborhood  of  the  conflict.  Orders  were  therefore  issued 
to  Major  William  G.  Flood,  who  was  commander  of  the  militia 
of  the  adjoining  and  populous  county  of  Adams,  by  which  he 
was  authorized  to  raise  a  sufficient  volunteer  force  in  that  and 
the  surrounding  counties,  to  enforce  the  observance  of  law  in 
Hancock.  It  turned  out,  however,  that  great  excitement  ex- 
isted in  Adams  and  in  all  the  neighboring  country,  and  Major 
Flood  being  of  opinion  that  if  he  raised  a  force  on  the  part  of 
the  State,  a  much  larger  force  would  have  turned  out  in  aid  of 
the  rioters,  declined  to  act. 

To  meet  such  a  contingency,  he  had  been  instructed  that,  if 
inconvenient  for  himself  to  act,  he  was  to  hand  over  his  author- 
ity to  some  person  who  would  act,  and  who  could  be  elected  to 
the  command  of  the  forces  thus  to  be  raised.  Major  Flood, 
without  handing  over  his  authority  to  any  one  in  Adams  coun- 
ty, went  to  Nauvoo  to  use  his  influence  with  the  contending  par- 
ties, for  the  restoration  of  peace  ;  but  failing  in  this,  he  handed 
over  his  authority  to  the  Mormons  and  their  allies,  who  elected 
Major  Clifford  to  command  them.  In  issuing  this  order  to  Ma- 
jor Flood,  it  was  not  intended  to  put  the  Nauvoo  volunteers 
under  any  different  command  than  what  was  specified  in  the 
orders  to  Major  Parker,  as  it  had  already  been  declared  in  those 
orders  that  the  Mormon  force,  with  the  exception  of  the  ten 
men  from  Fulton  county,  were  to  serve  without  pay.  The  or- 
der to  Major  Flood  was  for  an  additional  force,  and  not  to  give 
a  different  organization  to  the  force  already  raised.  It  is  my 
solemn  conviction,  that  no  sufficient  force  could  have  been  raised 
to  have  fought  in  favor  of  the  Mormons.  But  there  was  still 


420  HISTOKY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

another  difficulty,  and  every  one  felt  it.  No  force  under  our 
present  constitution  could  more  than  temporarily  have  sup- 
pressed these  difficulties.  It  has  been  the  practice  heretofore, 
for  the  ring-leaders  of  rebellion  in  Hancock  to  withdraw  from 
the  State  whenever  the  State  forces  were  marched  over  there  ; 
and  from  experience  in  former  trials  they  had  found  out  that  no 
one  could  be  convicted.  The  result  of  former  expeditions  had 
been  to  keep  the  peace  during  the  presence  of  the  military,  but 
so  soon  as  they  disbanded  the  disorders  were  renewed.  The 
keeping  of  the  peace,  therefore,  in  that  county,  was  some  such 
labor  as  the  work  of  Sisyphus,  who  was  condemned  by  the 
gods  throughout  eternity  to  roll  a  stone  up  hill,  and  every  time 
he  got  it  nearly  to  the  top,  it  broke  loose  from  him,  and  again 
came  thundering  down  to  the  plain  below.  The  former  expe- 
ditions had  shown  this  to  be  the  case,  and  now  there  was  a  gen- 
eral disposition  to  let  the  hostile  parties  bring  matters  to  a  con- 
clusion in  their  own  way  ;  and  such  was  the  public  prejudice 
against  the  Mormons,  that,  ten  chances  to  one,  any  large  force 
of  militia  which  might  have  been  ordered  there,  would  have 
joined  the  rioters,  rather  than  fought  in  defence  of  the  Mor- 
mons.* 

*  It  has  been  asked,  How  did  Governor  Wright  of  New  York  sup- 
press the  riots  of  the  anti-renters  in  1846  ?  This  is  easily  answered. 
The  anti-rent  riots  were  less  generally  popular  than  the  riots  of  the 
anti-Mormons.  The  governor  there  was  better  supported  by  public 
opinion  than  the  governor-of  Illinois.  He  had  the  power,  and  he  exer- 
cised it,  to  appoint  and  remove  sheriffs,  and  other  county  officers  in- 
tended for  his  assistance  ;  and  the  laws  of  New  York  allowed  a  crim- 
inal to  be  taken  without  his  consent  to  a  distant  county  for  trial.  This 
last  advantage  was  one  worth  all  the  rest. 

The  history  of  the  law  concerning  the  venue  in  criminal  cases,  is  a 
curiosity.  By  the  ancient  common  law  the  jury  was  to  come  from  the 
very  town  or  neighborhood  where  the  crime  had  been  committed ;  and 
this  was  because  it  was  supposed  that  they  had  a  personal  knowledge 
of  the  circumstances  of  the  crime,  and  of  the  character  of  the  criminal 
and  the  witnesses.  It  was  to  guard  against  oppression,  by  assuring  the 


HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS.  421 

The  forces  under  Brockman  numbered  about  800  men ;  they 
were  armed  with  the  State  arms,  which  had  been  given  up  to 
them  by  independent  militia  companies  in  the  adjacent  counties. 
They  also  had  five  pieces  of  six-pounder  iron  cannon,  belonging 
to  the  State,  which  they  had  obtained  in  the  same  way.  The 
Mormon  party  and  their  allies,  being  some  of  the  hew  citizens, 
under  the  command  of  Major  Clifford,  numbered  at  first  about 

accused  of  a  trial  by  his  neighbors  and  acquaintances,  who,  if  he  were 
a  good  man,  would  know  it,  and  deal  more  gently  with  him  than  stran- 
gers would.  Afterwards,  by  statute,  the  jury  was  to  come  from  the 
body  of  the  county.  Our  State  constitution,  in  imitation  of  the  Eng- 
lish law,  provides  that  criminals  shall  be  entitled  to  a  jury  of  the  vicin- 
age, which  means  the  same  thing.  And  yet  our  law  says  that  no  man 
shall  be  a  competent  juror  who  has  formed  an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt' 
or  innocence  of  the  criminal.  If  the  juror  is  not  to  bring  his  private 
knowledge,  and  his  bias  in  favor  of  the  accused,  into  the  jury,  but  little 
good  is  the  privilege  of  having  a  jury  from  the  vicinage  likely  to  do 
the  prisoner.  He  might  just  as  well  be  taken  to  some  other  county  and 
tried  by  strangers,  as  to  be  tried  by  strangers  in  his  own  county.  It  is 
true  that  the  law  of  Illinois  allows  the  accused  to  remove  his  trial  for 
prejudice  in  the  judge  or  inhabitants,  but  the  State  has  no  right  to  re- 
move the  case  without  the  consent  of  the  prisoner.  One  of  the  com- 
plaints \irged  against  me,  and  some  men  who  held  themselves  out,  but 
rather  falsely  pretend  to  be  lawyers,  have  made  it,  is,  that  I  did  not 
take  the  Mormon  and  anti-Mormon  prisoners  to  some  foreign  county  to 
be  tried.  Some  thought  they  ought  to  have  been  taken  before  the  su- 
preme court,  and  others  before  the  United  States  court  at  Springfield, 
as  if  either  of  these  courts  had  the  slightest  particle  of  power  to  try 
them.  Before  I  heard  of  these  complaints,  I  was  not  aware  that  there 
was  so  much  stupid  ignorance  in  the  country,  particularly  among  men 
who  pretend  to  be  lawyers. 

There  is  now  no  .doubt  but  the  power  to  change  the  venue  in  crim- 
inal cases,  which  the  constitution  of  New  York  vested  in  the  supreme 
court,  to  be  exercised  at  discretion,  has  operated  well  in  all  cases  of  lo- 
cal excitement ;  and  probably  saved  a  war  with  England,  which  was 
likely  to  grow  out  of  the  trial  of  McLeod  for  the  murder  of  Durfee  and 
burning  the  Caroline  steamboat  on  the  Niagara  frontier. 

But  to  return  to  Gov.  Wright.     Being  supported  by  public  opinion, 


422  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

two  hundred  and  fifty,  but  were  diminished  by  desertions  and 
removals,  before  any  decisive  fighting  took  place,  to  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty.  Some  of  them  were  armed  with  sixteen 
shooting  rifles, — which  experience  proved  were  not  very  effect- 
ive in  their  hands, — and  a  few  of  them  with  muskets.  They 
had  four  or  five  pieces  of  cannon,  hastily  and  rudely  made  by 
themselves  out  of  the  shaft  of  a  steamboat. 

The  Mormons  and  their  allies  took  position  in  the  suburbs, 
about  one  mile  east  of  the  temple,  where  they  threw  up  some 
breastworks  for  the  protection  of  their  artillery.  The  attacking 
force  was  strong  enough  to  have  been  divided  and  marched  into 
the  city  on  each  side  of  this  battery,  and  entirely  out  of  the 
range  of  its  shot ;  and  thus  the  place  might  have  been  taken 
without  firing  a  gun.  But  Brockman,  although  he  professed  a 
desire  to  save  the  lives  of  his  men,  planted  his  force  directly  in 
front  of  the  enemy's  battery,  but  distant  more  than  half  a 
mile ;  and  now  both  parties  commenced  a  fire  from  their  can- 
non, and  some  few  persons  on  each  side  approached  near 
enough  to  open  a  fire  with  their  rifles  and  muskets,  but  not 
near  enough  to  do  each  other  material  injury. 

he  put  down  the  anti-renters  and  protected  the  property  of  the  wealthy. 
In  return  for  this  favor,  the  wealthy  men  at  an  election  a  few  months 
afterwards  united  with  the  anti-renters,  and  helped  them  put  Governor 
Wright  down.  Governor  Wright  did  all  he  could  to  secure  the  convic- 
tion of  murderers  and  assassins  amongst  the  anti-renters,  who  had  raised 
a  rebellion  against  the  laws  of  property,  The  men  of  property  imme- 
diately helped  the  anti-renters  to  defeat  Governor  Wright's  second 
election,  and  to  elect  a  man  who  was  pledged  to  pardon  these  same 
murderers  and  cut-throats  out  of  the  penitentiary. 

The  next  extensive  riot  against  property  in  the  United  States  is  not 
likely  to  be  quelled  so  easily.  Public  men  will  hereafter  remember  the 
fate  of  Governor  Wright.  They  will  be  apt  to  remember  that  active 
efforts  against  the  rioters  will  make  enemies  of  them,  without  making 
friends  elsewhere.  Upon  the  whole,  this  example  of  the  men  of  prop- 
erty uniting  with  the  miserable  faction  of  anti-renters  to  put  down 
such  a  man  as  Gov.  Wright,  is  one  of  the  worst  signs  of  the  times. 


HISTOEY  OF   ILLINOIS.  423 

In  this  manner  they  continued  to  fire  at  each  other  at  such  a 
distance,  and  with  such  want  of  skill,  as  that  there  was  but  little 
prospect  of  injury,  until  the  anti-Mormons  had  exhausted  their 
ammunition,  when  they  retreated  in  some  disorder  to  their 
camp.  They  were  not  pursued,  and  here  the  Mormon  party 
committed  an  error,  for  all  experience  of  irregular  forces  has 
shown,  that  however  brave  they  may  be,  that  a  charge  on  them 
when  they  have  once  commenced  a  retreat,  is  sure  to  be  suc- 
cessful. Having  waited  a  few  days  to  supply  themselves  anew 
with  ammunition  from  Quincy,  the  anties  again  advanced  to 
the  attack,  but  without  coming  nearer  to  the  enemy  than  before, 
and  that  what  at  the  time  was  called  a  battle,  was  kept  up  three 
or  four  days,  during  all  which  time  the  Mormons  admit  a  loss 
of  two  men  and  a  boy  killed,  and  three  or  four  wounded.  The 
anties  admitted  a  loss  on  their  side  of  one  man  mortally,  and 
nine  or  ten  others  not  so  dangerously  wounded.  The  Mormons 
claimed  that  they  had  killed  thirty  or  forty  of  the  anties.  The 
anties  claimed  that  they  had  killed  thirty  or  forty  of  the  Mor- 
mons, and  both  parties  could  have  proved  their  claim  by  incon- 
testable evidence,  if  their  witnesses  had  been  credible.  But 
the  account  which  each  party  renders  of  its  loss,  ought  to  be 
taken  as  the  true  one,  unless  such  account  can  be  successfully 
controverted.  During  all  the  skirmishing  and  firing  of  cannon, 
it  is  estimated  that  from  seven  to  nine  hundred  cannon  balls, 
and  an  infinite  number  of  bullets,  were  fired  on  each  side,  from 
which  it  appears  that  the  remarkable  fact  of  so  few  being  killed 
and  wounded,  can  be  accounted  for  only  by  supposing  great 
unskilfulness  in  the  use  of  arms,  and  by  the  very  safe  distance 
which  the  parties  kept  from  each  other. 

At  last,  through  the  intervention  of  an  anti-Mormon  commit- 
tee of  one  hundred  from  Quincy,  the  Mormons  and  their  allies 
were  induced  to  submit  to  such  terms  as  the  posse  chose  to 
dictate,  which  were  that  the  Mormons  should  immediately  give 
up  their  arms  to  the  Quincy  committee,  and  remove  from  the 


424  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

State.  The  trustees  of  the  church  and  five  of  their  clerks  were 
permitted  to  remain  for  the  sale  of  Mormon  property,  and  the 
posse  were  to  march  in  unmolested,  and  to  leave  a  sufficient 
force  to  guarantee  the  performance  of  these  stipulations. 

Accordingly,  the  constable's  posse  marched  in  with  Brock 
man  at  their  head,  consisting  of  about  eight  hundred  armed 
men,  and  six  or  seven  hundred  unarmed,  who  had  assembled 
from  all  the  country  around,  from  motives  of  curiosity,  to  see 
the  once  proud  city  of  Nauvoo  humbled,  and  delivered  up  to 
its  enemies,  and  to  the  domination  of  a  self-constituted  and  irre- 
sponsible power.  They  proceeded  into  the  city  slowly  and 
carefully,  examining  the  way  from  fear  of  the  explosion  of  a 
mine,  many  of  which  had  been  made  by  the  Mormons,  by 
burying  kegs  of  powder  in  the  ground,  with  a  man  stationed 
at  a  distance  to  pull  a  string  communicating  with  the  trigger 
of  a  percussion  lock  affixed  to  the  keg.  This  kind  of  a  contriv- 
ance was  called  by  the  Mormons  a  "  hell's  half  acre."  When 
the  posse  arrived  in  the  city,  the  leaders  of  it  erected  themselves 
into  a  tribunal  to  decide  who  should  be  forced  away  and  who 
remain.  Parties  were  despatched  to  hunt  for  Mormon  arms 
and  for  Mormons,  and  to  bring  them  to  the  judgment,  where 
they  received  their  doom  from  the  mouth  of  Brockman,  who 
there  sat  a  grim  and  unawed  tyrant  for  the  time.  As  a  general 
rule,  the  Mormons  were  ordered  to  leave  within  an  hour  or  two 
hours ;  and  by  rare  grace,  some  of  them  were  allowed  until 
next  day,  and  in  a  few  cases  longer.  The  treaty  specified  that 
the  Mormons  only  should  be  driven  into  exile.  Nothing  was 
said  in  it  concerning  the  new  citizens,  who  had  with  the  Mor- 
mons defended  the  city.  But  the  posse  no  sooner  obtained 
possession,  than  they  commenced  expelling  the  new  citizens. 
Some  of  them  were  ducked  in  the  river,  being  in  one  or  two 
instances  actually  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  leaders  of  the 
mob,  others  were  forcibly  driven  into  the  ferry  boats,  to  be 
taken  over  the  river,  before  the  bayonets  of  armed  ruffians; 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  425 

and  it  is  believed  that  the  houses  of  most  of  them  were  broken 
open  and  their  property  stolen  during  their  absence.  Many  of 
these  new  settlers  were  strangers  in  the  country  from  various 
parts  of  the  United  States,  who  were  attracted  there  by  the  low 
price  of  property,  and  they  knew  but  little  of  previous  difficul- 
ties, or  the  merits  of  the  quarrel.  They  saw  with  their  own 
eyes  that  the  Mormons  were  industriously  preparing  to  go 
away,  and  they  knew  of  their  own  knowledge  that  an  effort  to 
expel  them  with  force  was  gratuitous  and  unnecessary  cruelty. 
They  had  been  trained  in  the  States  from  whence  they  came  to 
abhor  mobs,  and  to  obey  the  law,  and  they  volunteered  their 
services  under  executive  authority,  to  defend  their  town  and 
their  property  against  mob  violence,  and  as  they  honestly  be- 
lieved, from  destruction.  But  in  this  they  were  partly  mis- 
taken, for  although  the  mob  leaders,  in  the  exercise  of  unbridled 
power,  were  guilty  of  many  enormities  to  the  persons  of  indi- 
viduals, and  although  much  personal  property  was  stolen,  yet 
they  abstained  from  materially  injuring  houses  and  buildings. 
The  most  that  was  done  in  this  way,  was  the  stealing  of  the 
doors  and  the  sash  of  the  windows  from  the  houses  by  some- 
body ;  the  anti-Mormons  allege  that  they  were  carried  away  by 
the  Mormons,  and  the  Mormons  aver  that  the  most  of  them 
were  stolen  by  the  anti-Mormons. 

In  a  few  days  the  obnoxious  inhabitants  had  been  expelled, 
the  warlike  new  citizens  with  the  rest.  This  class  of  citizens 
had  strong  claims  to  be  treated  with  more  generosity  by  the 
conquerors ;  but  a  mob,  and  more  especially  the  mob  leaders, 
inflamed  with  passion,  exasperated  by  a  brave  resistance,  their 
vulgar  souls  seeing  no  merit  in  the  courage  of  adversaries,  are 
not  apt  to  show  them  much  favor  in  the  day  of  success  and  tri- 
umph. The  main  force  of  the  posse  was  now  disbanded.  Brock- 
man  returned  home.  But  before  he  returned,  whilst  his  men 
were  doubly  intoxicated  with  liquor  and  by  the  glory  of  their 
victory,  one  hundred  of  them  volunteered  to  remain,  to  prevent 


426  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

the  return  of  those  who  had  been  expelled,  or  who  had  fled 
knowing  that  they  would  be  forced  away,  and  otherwise  cruelly 
treated  if  they  remained  to  face  their  conquerors.  These,  of 
course,  were  the  lowest,  most  violent,  the  least  restrained  by 
principle,  of  all  the  anti-Mormons.  The  most  of  them  were 
such  vagabonds  as  had  no  home  anywhere  else,  no  business  or 
employment,  and  for  that  reason  were  the  readiest  to  stay. 
The  posse  was  finally  diminished  to  about  thirty  men,  under 
Major  McCalla,  and  continued  to  exercise  all  the  powers  of 
government  in  Nauvoo,  committing  many  high-handed  acts  of 
tyranny  and  oppression,  and,  as  they  said,  some  acts  of  charity 
to  the  suffering  women  and  children,  until  they  heard  that  a 
force  was  coming  against  them  from  Springfield. 

In  the  meantime  the  Mormons  had  been  forced  away  from 
their  homes  unprepared  for  a  journey.  They  and  their  women 
and  children  had  been  thrown  houseless  upon  the  Iowa  shore, 
without  provisions  or  the  means  of  getting  them,  or  to  get  away 
to  places  where  provisions  might  be  obtained.  It  was  now  the 
highest  of  the  sickly  season.  Many  of  them  were  taken  from 
sick  beds,  hurried  into  the  boats  and  driven  away  by  the  armed 
ruffians,  now  exercising  the  power  of  government.  The  best 
they  could  do  was  to  erect  their  tents  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
and  there  remain  to  take  their  chance  of  perishing  by  hunger, 
or  by  prevailing  sickness.  In  this  condition  the  sick  without 
shelter,  food,  nourishment,  or  medicines,  died  by  scores.  The 
mother  watched  her  sick  babe  without  hope,  until  it  died  ;  and 
when  she  sunk  under  accumulated  miseries,  it  was  only  to  be 
quickly  followed  by  her  other  children,  now  left  without  the 
least  attention  ;  for  the  men  had  scattered  out  over  the  country 
seeking  employment  and  the  means  of  living.  Their  distressed 
condition  was  no  sooner  known,  than  all  parties  contributed  to 
their  relief;  the  anti-Mormons  as  much  as  others. 

Some  of  the  new  citizens  who  had  been  driven  away,  had  sev- 
eral times  attempted  to  return  to  look  after  their  property,  and 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  427 

were  each  time  driven  away  with  more  violence  than  they  were 
before.  The  people  of  the  State  looked  upon  these  outrages 
with  calm  indifference.  A  few  here  and  there  were  anxions 
that  something  should  be  done  to  put  an  end  to  them.  But 
such  persons  were  generally  moderate  men  who,  because  they 
are  not  violent  themselves,  dislike  violence  in  others ;  and  for 
the  same  reason,  although  they  desire  something  to  be  done, 
yet  never  do  anything  to  aid  the  authorities  of  the  State.  These 
moderate  men,  if  force  is  necessary  to  put  down  force,  are  al- 
ways the  last  whose  services  can  be  obtained ;  and  yet  they  are 
always  the  readiest  to  find  fault  with  the  government  which 
they  have  failed  to  assist.  They  are  the  first  to  call  upon  the 
governor  for  prompt  action,  but  the  last  to  bring  him  any  aid  ; 
and  very  many  of  them  tremble  at  the  mere  idea  of  venturing 
their  popularity  in  such  an  enterprise.  Let  no  public  man  in 
times  of  excitement  depend  upon  moderate  men  for  support ; 
nor  can  he  in  such  times  justly  expect  to  be  supported  in  mod- 
erate measures.  All  violence  is  wrong ;  the  moderate  course 
is  the  right  one ;  the  violent  men  support  their  measures  with 
energy ;  the  moderate  men  let  theirs  perish  for  want  of  sup- 
port. In  such  a  contest  a  very  few,  a  dozen  violent  men  are 
worth  a  thousand  of  the  moderates.  The  moderate  party  never 
give  any  efficient  support  to  their  leaders.  They  will  coldly 
approve  if,  upon  a  very  careful  and  curious  looking  into  mat- 
ters, what  has  been  done  suits  them  in  the  manner  and  amount 
of  it  exactly ;  but  if  not  suited  to  the  eighth  of  an  inch,  then 
they  are  not  sparing  in  their  censure.  This  is  true  not  only  as 
to  excitements  which  lead  to  civil  war,  but  as  to  all  excitements 
attending  the  contests  of  party.  And  it  is  for  this  reason  that 
ambitious  politicians  are  always  driven  to  violent  courses,  to 
extreme  measures,  and  to  eschew  all  moderation.  They  know 
that  they  can  depend  upon  the  men  of  violence  and  action  for 
support.  And  they  know,  as  La  Fayette  might  have  known, 
that  the  moderate  men  never  give  a  support  worth  anything 


428  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

to  any  one.  The  wealthy,  who  stand  most  in  need  of  pro- 
tection against  violence,  very  rarely  ever  volunteer  to  put  it 
down;  most  frequently  leaving  the  laws  to  be  enforced,  if 
enforced  at  all,  by  obscure  men ;.  and  many  times  by  such  per- 
sons as  have  no  business  of  their  own,  or  care  for  the  stability 
of  law  and  government.  Such  men  as  these  are  the  readiest  to 
volunteer  in  a  popular  service  ;  some  volunteer -without  consid- 
ering the  merits  of  the  cause  ;  and  in  civil  broils  as  they  change 
their  minds  with  the  changing  winds,  and  have  the  election  of 
their  own  commanders,  their  attachment  to  the  one  or  the  other 
side  is  not  always  to  be  relied  on.  Now,  as  long  as  the  wealthy 
substantial  citizen  refuses  his  aid,  the  support  of  government 
rests  upon  such  feeble  helps  as  these. 

But  the  people  had  now  waked  up  to  reflection ;  they  had 
seen  a  mob  victorious  over  the  government  of  the  people.  The 
government  in  a  large  district  was  actually  put  down  and  trod- 
den under  foot.  They  were  willing  that  the  Mormons  might 
be  driven  away;  but  they  had  not  anticipated  the  outrages 
which  followed.  A  re  action  took  place,  and  such  is  the  incon- 
stancy of  popular  feeling,  that  men  who  were  before  outrageous 
against  the  governor  for  making  any,  even  an  abortive  effort  to 
extend  a  scanty  assistance  to  an  oppressed  people,  were  now  no 
less  clamorous  against  him  for  not  raising  a  force  before  one 
could  possibly  be  raised ;  and  they  even  went  so  far  as  to  re- 
quire that  martial  law  should  be  declared ;  and  that  the  rioters 
should  be  hung  without  trial  or  judgment.  Thus  they  thought 
that  mob  violence  might  be  put  down  by  the  illegal  mob  vio- 
lence of  government ;  and  were  in  favor  of  converting  the  gov- 
ernment into  a  mob  to  put  down  mobocracy. 

There  is  a  vague  feeling  among  the  people  in  favor  of  martial 
law  on  such  occasions.  I  can  find  no  authoriry  in  the  constitu- 
tion, or  anywhere  else,  for  the  enforcement  of  martial  law  out- 
side the  lines  of  a  military  encampment.  The  civil  law  is  above 
the  military.  But  when  the  civil  law  shall  be  utterly  disre- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  429 

garded  and  trampled  under  foot ;  when  the  people  become 
wholly  unfit  for  self-government ;  when  anarchy  and  disorder 
shall  be  forced  to  give  place  to  despotism  ;  when  our  forms  of 
government  shall  be  utterly  overthrown  and  abandoned,  as  ex- 
periments which  have  failed,  the  first  dawnings  of  the  reign  of 
tyrants  most  likely  will  be  preceded  by  proclamations  of  mar- 
tial law,  not  for  the  government  of  armies,  but  for  the  govern- 
ment and  punishment  of  a  people  at  once  rebellious  and  deserv- 
ing to  be  slaves.  The  general  sentiment  in  favor  of  martial 
law  and  the  disorders  calling  it  forth,  are  fearful  evidences  of  a 
falling  away  from  the  true  principles  of  liberty.  Ever  since 
Gen.  Jackson  on  some  great  occasions,  when  the  fate  of  half  the 
country  was  at  stake,  "  took  the  responsibility"  the  country  has 
swarmed  with  a  tribe  of  small  statesmen  who  seem  to  think 
that  the  true  secret  of  government  is  to  set  it  aside  and  re- 
sort to  mere  force,  upon  the  occurrence  of  the  smallest  diffi- 
culties. It  may  be  well  enough  on  great  occasions  to  have  one 
great  Jackson  ;  but  on  every  small  occasion  no  one  can  imagine 
the  danger  of  having  a  multitude  of  little  Jacksons.  Jackson's 
example  is  to  be  admired  rather  than  imitated  ;  and  the  first 
may  be  done  easier  and  safer  than  the  last. 

Government  was  obliged  to  wait  for  a  change  in  the  feelings 
of  the  people.  As  soon  as  this  change  was  manifested,  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  men  were  raised  in  and  near  Springfield,  and 
with  this  small  force  the  governor  started  to  Hancock.  Before 
this  force  arrived  there,  it  had  increased  to  the  number  of  two 
hundred.  The  motive  for  going  over  this  time  was  to  restore 
to  their  homes  about  sixty  families  of  new  citizens,  not  being 
Mormons,  who  had  been  driven  away  from  their  property,  most 
of  which  had  been  stolen  during  their  absence.  The  Mormons 
could  not  have  been  persuaded  to  return  on  any  terms.  The 
governor  had  no  expectation  of  being  resisted  by  the  great  body 
of  anties,  although  he  had  attempted  to  bring  some  of  them  to 
justice  for  their  crimes ;  yet  were  they  notoriously  indebted  to 


430  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

him  for  being  recalled  to  their  homes  when  driven  away  by  the 
sheriff  and  his  Mormon  posse.  He  had  been  mainly  instru- 
mental in  inducing  the  great  body  of  Mormons  to  leave  the 
State ;  he  had  effectually  aided  in  protecting  the  county  revenue 
from  being  collected  and  most  probably  squandered  by  the 
sheriff,  whose  only  securities  were  Mormons  about  to  leave  the 
country ;  he  had  also  given  effectual  assistance  in  preventing  the 
Mormon  county  court  from  running  the  county  in  debt  thirty 
or  forty  thousand  dollars,  to  pay  the  Mormon  posse  under 
Backinstos  ;  and  he  had,  for  the  space  of  seven  months,  obsti- 
nately refused  to  recall  Major  Warren's  force  stationed  in  Han- 
cock for  their  protection,  though  their  recall  was  daily  in- 
sisted upon  by  the  strongest  of  the  governor's  political  friends. 
During  all  this  time,  he  had  the  anti-Mormons  at  his  mercy  ; 
during  the  dead,  cold  winter,  when  their  expulsion  from  their 
homes  would  have  ruined  them.  It  was  only  to  recall  the  mili- 
tary, and  restore  the  charge  of  keeping  the  peace  to  the  sheriff. 
But  the  anties  did  not  feel  the  least  grateful  for  any  of  the 
good  which  had  been  done  them.  They  remembered  only  the 
evil.  It  appeared,  that  if  they  had  any  gratitude,  it  consisted 
alone  in  a  lively  expectation  of  future  favor.  Indeed,  during 
the  whole  winter  that  the  governor  was  protecting  them  in  their 
homes,  and  keeping  their  lives  in  their  bodies,  they  never  ceased 
cursing  and  abusing  him.  But  the  governor  had  done  these 
things  because  they  were  right,  and  was  too  sensible  a  man  to 
expect  any  thanks  ;  and  they  are  now  mentioned,  not  to  com- 
plain, but  to  illustrate  a  truth  in  matters  of  government,  which 
is  this  :  that  he  who  will  preserve  the  confidence  and  affection 
of  a  faction,  must  be  with  it  every  time,  through  right  and 
wrong.  This  course  the  governor  is  not  at  liberty  to  take  in  a 
civil  war,  where  both  parties  seek  to  trample  the  government 
under  feet,  and  where  both  of  them  in  turn  may  need  restraint. 
And  yet  if  he  does  not  take  one  side  and  keep  it,  no  allowance 
is  made  for  his  position ;  he  is  judged  of  as  an  individual  fac- 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  431 

'*  •         <*.. 

tionist  would  be ;  he  is  charged  with  being  first  on  one  side, 

and  then  on  the  other,  and  on  every  side ;  just  as  if  he  had  no 
public  duty  to  perform,  but  was  at  liberty  to  take  sides  in  the 
quarrel  like  a  private  man. 

Very  much  to  his  astonishment,  when  the  governor  arrived 
in  Hancock,  the  anti-Mormons  were  exceedingly  bitter  against 
him.  Brockman  was  sent  for ;  the  leaders  assembled,  and  now 
commenced  a  series  of  the  most  vexatious  proceedings.  They 
could  hardly  find  words  strong  enough  to  express  their  unaffect- 
ed surprise  and  astonishment  at  the  impudence  of  the  governor 
and  the  people  of  other  counties  in  interfering,  as  they  called 
it,  in  the  affairs  of  Hancock.  So  far  had  the  mob-scenes  which 
they  had  passed  through  beclouded  their  judgments,  and  so  far 
had  they  imitated  the  Mormons  in  their  modes  of  thinking,  that 
they  really  believed  that  the  people  of  Hancock  had  some  kind 
of  government  and  sovereignty  of  their  own,  and  that  to  inter- 
fere with  this  was  to  invade  their  sacred  rights.  In  their  long, 
bitter,  and  angry  contest  with  the  Mormons,  they  had  acquired 
most  of  the  vices  of  that  people,  being  hurried  on  by  the  inten- 
sity of  bad  passions  to  imitate  their  crimes,  that  they  might  be 
equal  to  them  in  the  contest.  This  is  one  of  the  inevitable  ef- 
fects of  long-continued  faction ;  and,  accordingly,  the  presence 
of  the  Mormons  for  six  years  in  that  part  of  the  country  has 
left  moral  blotches  and  propensities  to  crime,  a  total  dissolution 
of  moral  principle  among  the  remaining  inhabitants,  which  one 
generation  passing  away  will  not  eradicate,  and  perhaps  will 
never  be  effectually  cured  until  they  learn  by  long  and  dire  ex- 
perience that  the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard. 

After  the  arrival  of  the  governor  in  the  county,  two  public 
meetings  were  held  by  the  anties,  one  in  Carthage  and  one  in 
Nauvoo ;  at  both  of  which,  it  was  resolved  that  they  would  do 
nothing  whilst  the  State  forces  remain  ;  but  believing  that  this 
force  could  be  kept  up  only  for  a  short  time,  they  solemnly  de- 
termined to  drive  out  the  proscribed  new  citizens  as  soon  as  the 


442  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

notwithstanding  the  doctor  had  adjudged  that  there  were  no 
rogues  in  Massac,  the  militia  knew  to  the  contrary,  and  as  was 
foreseen  by  the  governor,  the  militia  refused  to  turn  out  for 
their  protection.  Thus  the  regulators  were  again  left  undis- 
puted masters  of  the  county.  They  now  assembled  themselves 
together,  caught  a  number  of  suspected  persons,  and  tried  them 
by  a  committee ;  some  were  acquitted,  others  convicted,  and 
were  whipped  or  tarred  and  feathered.  The  numbers  impli- 
cated with  the  counterfeiters,  increased  rather  than  diminished. 
Many  persons  who  had  before  been  considered  honest  men, 
were  now  implicated,  which  increased  the  excitement.  Many 
who  were  formerly  in  favor  of  the  regulators,  now  left  them, 
and  disapproved  of  their  conduct.  The  one  party  was  called 
"  Regulators,"  the  other  "  Flatheads." 

A  party  of  about  twenty  regulators  went  to  the  house  of  an 
old  man  named  Mathis,  to  arrest  him  and  force  him  to  give 
evidence  of  the  guilt  of  certain  persons  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  of  some  who  had  been  inmates  of  his  house.  He  and  his 
wife  resisted  the  arrest.  The  old  woman  being  unusually 
strong  and  active,  knocked  down  one  or  two  of  the  party  with 
her  fists.  A  gun  was  then  presented  to  her  breast  accompanied 
by  a  threat  of  blowing  her  heart  out  if  she  continued  her  re- 
sistance. She  caught  the  gun  and  shoved  it  downwards,  when 
it  went  off  and  shot  her  through  the  thigh.  She  was  also 
struck  several  blows  on  the  head  with  the  gun-barrel,  inflicting 
considerable  wounds,  knocking  her  down  in  her  turn.  The  par- 
ty captured  the  old  man  Mathis  and  carried  him  away  with 
them,  since  which  time  he  has  not  been  heard  of,  but  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  murdered.  The  regulators  say  that  the 
shooting  of  the  old  lady  was  accidental.  She  made  the  proper 
affidavit  for  the  purpose  of  having  the  perpetrators  of  the  crime 
arrested.  The  proper  authorities  succeeded  in  arresting  about 
ten  of  them.  They  were  carried  to  the  Metropolis  house  in 
Metropolis  city,  and  there  placed  under  a  guard,  while  search 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  443 

was  made  for  the  old  man  Mathis,  who  was  desired  as  a  witness 
against  the  prisoners.  The  news  of  their  arrest  having  gone 
abroad,  it  was  rumored  all  over  the  country  that  the  Flatheads 
intended  to  put  them  to  death  if  they  failed  to  convict  them. 
This  brought  out  a  large  force  of  regulators  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  rescuing  the  prisoners.  They  marched  to  Metropolis 
city,  where  they  found  the  sheriff  with  a  party  about  as  numer- 
ous as  their  own.  Various  attempts  to  compromise  the  diffi- 
culty without  the  effusion  of  blood  were  made ;  but  this  could 
be  effected  only  by  the  unconditional  release  of  the  prisoners. 
After  getting  their  friends  from  the  sheriff's  party,  the  regulators 
arrested  several  of  the  sheriff's  guards  and  delivered  them  to  the 
Kentuckians,  to  be  dealt  with  as  they  saw  proper.  In  attempt- 
ing to  arrest  one  man  they  fired  at  him  twice  without  injury, 
when  he  surrendered ;  and  as  he  was  lead  down  stairs  he  was 
stabbed  from  behind  by  one  of  the  regulators ;  and  he  having 
screamed  murder  in  consequence  of  his  wound,  a  Methodist 
preacher  who  commanded  one  of  the  regulating  companies  ex- 
claimed, "  Now  they  are  using  them  as  they  should  be."  *  The 
wounded  man  was  said,  to  be  respectable,  and  upon  good 
authority,  was  represented  to  be  an  honest,  industrious  young 
man.  The  man  who  stabbed  him  had  before  had  a  personal 
difficulty  with  him,  and  sought  this  means  of  getting  revenged. 
Thus  it  is,  when  regular  government  is  prostrated  and  the  laws 
trampled  under  foot,  apparently  for  the  best  of  purposes,  men 
will  avail  themselves  of  the  prevalent  anarchy  to  revenge  their 
private  quarrels ;  in  a  short  time  the  original  purpose  for  which 
force  is  resorted  to  will  be  forgotten ;  and  instead  of  punishing 
horse-thieves  and  robbers,  those  who  drop  the  law  and  resort 
to  force,  soon  find  themselves  fiercely  contending  to  revenge 
injuries  and  insults,  and  to  maintain  their  assumed  authority. 
The  prisoners  taken  away  by  the  Kentuckians  were  mostly 

*  See  volume  of  Illinois  Reports  for  1846-'7,  p.  96.  Senate  Documents. 


434  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

for  Capt.  Allen,  for  stopping  some  persons  in  the  streets  of 
Carthage,  whilst  searching  for  arms.  These  writs  were  intend- 
ed to  be  made  the  foundation  of  another  call  for  the  posse,  and 
for  our  expulsion  from  the  county.  The  effort  was  made,  but 
the  mob  party  failed  to  enlist  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 
men.  We  had  diminished  ours,  by  discharges,  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty.  But  the  mob  hesitated  to  attack  us  without  five 
or  six  times  our  number,  and  accordingly  abandoned  their  de- 
sign of  making  the  arrests. 

After  staying  in  the  county  seventeen  days,  being  in  no  dan- 
ger except  from  secret  assassins,  having  made  diligent  search 
for  the  five  pieces  of  cannon  and  other  arms  belonging  to  the 
State,  without  success ;  and  as  our  officers  and  men  published 
in  a  handbill,  on  the  ground,  having  forced  the  assassins  and 
cut-throats  there  to  endure  the  presence  of  the  exiled  citizens, 
the  principal  part  of  the  force  was  disbanded.  Major  Jackson 
and  Captain  Connelly  were  left  with  fifty  men  to  remain  until 
the  15th  of  December,  1846,  before  which  day  the  legislature 
was  to  assemble,  and  it  was  expected  that  the  cold  of  the  win- 
ter would  by  that  time  put  an  end  to  the  anti-Mormon  agita- 
tions. This  expectation  was  realized.  Nothing  puts  an  end  to 
the  continued  enterprises  of  a  mob  sooner  than  the  cold  of 
winter. 

We  did  not  think  worth  while  to  arrest  any  one  for  previous 
riots,  knowing  as  we  did  that  the  State  could  not  change  the 
trial  to  any  other  county,  and  that  no  one  could  be  convicted 
in  Hancock.  In  fact,  the  anties  made  their  boasts  that  as  they 
were  in  the  entire  possession  of  the  juries  and  all  civil  officers 
of  the  county,  no  jury  could  be  obtained  there  to  convict  them. 
If  Brockman  or  others  had  been  arrested,  no  justice  of  the 
peace  would  have  committed  them  for  trial ;  if  they  had  been 
committed,  they  would  have  been  turned  loose  by  the  sheriff  or 
the  mob.  And  if  they  had  chosen  to  stand  their  trial,  they 
were  certain  not  to  be  convicted.  An  effort  to  arrest  and  pros- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  435 

ecute  these  men  would  have  resulted  only  in  another  triumph 
of  the  mob  over  government.  In  fact,  there  was  no  way  to 
punish  them,  as  former  trials  had  shown,  except  by  martial  law ; 
and  this  course  was  utterly  illegal.  The  governor  believed  that 
he  could  not  declare  martial  law  for  the  punishment  of  citizens 
without  admitting  that  free  government  had  failed ;  and  as- 
suming that  despotism  was  necessary  in  its  place.  He  believed 
that  to  proceed  in  such  cases  by  martial  law  was  to  overturn 
the  government,  institute  monarchy,  and  make  himself  a  dicta- 
tor. If  he  erred  in  this,  it  was  an  error  springing  from  attach- 
ment to  the  principles  of  civil  liberty.  Many  were  they  who 
wondered  that  the  governor  did  not  do  something  to  punish 
these  men ;  and  held  him  responsible  just  as  if  he  actually  pos- 
sessed the  power  of  government ;  just  as  if  he  possessed  the 
power  of  appointing  and  removing  all  the  civil  and  military 
officers  in  the  disaffected  region,  who  being  independent  of  the 
governor,  set  up  authority  against  authority  ;  and  just  as  if  he 
had  a  standing  army  at  command,  or  with  his  single  arm  could 
make  the  people  put  down  the  people.  Let  his  administration 
be  what  it  may  in  these  difficulties,  yet  it  illustrates  the  princi- 
ple which  most  of  all  I  desire  to  illustrate  in  this  history ; 
which  is,  that  government  is  naturally  forced  to  be  a  type  of 
the  people  over  whom  it  is  instituted.  The  people  are  said  to 
be  the  masters,  and  public  officers  the  servants,  and  such  is  the 
fact ;  but  with  this  fact  let  it  be  remembered  that  wherever  the 
relation  of  master  and  servant  exists,  the  proverb  of  "  like  mas- 
ter like  man "  will  apply.  If  the  people  will  have  anarchy, 
there  is  no  power  short  of  despotism  capable  of  forcing  them  to 
submission ;  and  the  despotism  which  naturally  grows  out  of 
anarchy,  can  never  be  established  by  those  who  are  elected  to 
administer  regular  government.  If  the  mob  spirit  is  to  con- 
tinue, it  must  necessarily  lead  to  despotism  ;  but  this  despotism 
will  be  erected  upon  the  ruins  of  government,  and  not  spring 
out  of  it.  It  has  been  said  that  one  great  party  in  this  country 


436  HISTORY   OF  ILLINOIS. 

is  secretly  in  favor  of  monarchy.  If  this  were  true,  that  party 
could  not  sooner  or  more  effectually  accomplish  their  purposes 
than  to  lend  their  aid  in  creating  a  necessity  for  it.  Let  them 
but  encourage  "  every  man  to  do  that  which  seemeth  good  in 
his  own  eyes,"  and  God  will  give  them  a  king,  as  he  gave  one 
to  the  Jews  for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts.  This  simple  quo- 
tation from  Scripture  is  a  vivid  description  of  anarchy ;  of  that 
state  of  disorder,  when  men  will  consent  to  be  slaves  rather 
than  without  the  protection  of  government ;  when  men  fly  from 
the  tyranny  and  misrule  of  the  many -headed  monster  for  pro- 
tection to  the  despotism  of  one  man.  The  giving  of  a  king  to 
the  Jews  is  referred  to  as  a  special  providence  of  God.  But  it  is 
a  fundamental  law  of  man's  nature  from  which  he  cannot  escape, 
that  despotism  is  obliged  to  grow  out  of  general  anarchy,  as 
surely  as  a  stone  is  obliged  to  fall  to  the  earth  when  left  unsup- 
ported in  the  air.  Without  any  revealed  special  providence, 
but  in  accordance  with  this  great  law  of  man's  nature,  Cromwell 
rose  out  of  the  disorders  of  the  English  revolution  ;  Charles  the 
Second  was  restored  to  despotism  by  the  anarchy  which  suc- 
ceeded Cromwell ;  and  Bonaparte  came  forth  from  the  misrule 
of  republican  France.  The  people  in  all  these  cases  attempted 
to  govern  ;  but  in  fact,  did  not.  They  were  incapable  of  self- 
government  ;  and  by  returning  to  despotism,  admitted  that  they 
needed  a  master.  Where  the  people  are  unfit  for  liberty ; 
where  they  will  not  be  free  without  violence,  license  and  injus- 
tice to  others ;  where  they  do  not  deserve  to  be  free,  nature  it- 
self will  give  them  a  master.  No  form  of  constitution  can 
make  them  free  and  keep  them  so.  On  the  contrary,  a  people 
who  are  fit  for  and  deserve  liberty,  cannot  be  enslaved. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

Riots  in  Massac  county  in  1846— Robbery  in  Pope  county— The  regulators— Their  pro- 
ceedings—Arrests made  by  them— The  torture  and  confession  of  their  prisoners— 
The  rogues  vote  for  the  county  officers  of  Massac  in  1846 — Extorted  and  bribed 
evidence  to  implicate  the  sheriff  and  others,  by  the  opposing  candidates— The  sheriff 
and  others  ordered  to  leave  the  county — Many  whipped,  tarred  and  feathered,  and 
some  drowned — Arrest  of  the  rioters — They  are  rescued  by  the  regulators— Judge 
Scales'  charge  to  the  grand  jury — Indictments  against  the  regulators — Threats  to 
lynch  the  judge  and  the  grand  jury— Order  to  Dr.  Gibbs,  and  reason  for  such  an 
order— His  proceedings  under  it— The  militia  refuse  to  turn  out— Inefficiency  of 
well-disposed  moderate  men  in  such  times — A  few  bold,  violent  men,  can  govern 
a  county,  and  how  they  do  it — The  reasons  why  the  militia  would  not  turn  out — 
Attack  on  old  Mathis,  his  wife  shot,  he  is  carried  away,  supposed  to  have  been 
murdered — The  regulators  arrested,  given  up  by  the  sheriff,  prisoners  taken  to  Ken- 
tucky— Some  of  them  drowned — Proceedings  of  the  new  governor  and  the  legisla- 
ture, then  in  session — District  courts  provided  to  evade  the  Constitution  against 
changes  of  tho  venue  in  criminal  cases — The  disturbances  die  away  of  themselves — 
The  situation  in  1842  compared  with  its  condition  in  December  1846. 

WHILST  the  Mormons  and  their  adversaries  were  at  war  in  the 
county  of  Hancock,  a  little  rebellion,  less  in  numbers  but  equal 
in  violence,  was  raging  in  the  county  of  Massac,  on  the  Ohio 
river.  It  has  heretofore  been  mentioned,  that  an  ancient  colony 
of  horse-thieves,  counterfeiters,  and  robbers,  had  long  infested 
the  counties  of  Massac  and  Pope.  They  were  so  strong  and  so 
well  combined  together,  as  to  insure  impunity  from  punishment 
by  legal  means.  In  the  summer  of  1846,  a  number  of  these 
desperadoes  attacked  the  house  of  an  aged  citizen  in  Pope 
county,  and  robbed  him  of  about  $2,500  in  gold.  In  the  act 
of  committing  the  robbery,  one  of  them  left  behind  a  knife 
made  by  a  blacksmith  of  the  neighborhood,  by  means  of  which 
he  was  identified.  This  one  being  arrested,  and  subjected  to 
torture  by  the  neighboring  people,  confessed  his  crime,  and 


438  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

gave  the  names  of  his  associates.  These  again  being  arrested, 
to  the  number  of  a  dozen,  and  some  of  them  being  tortured, 
disclosed  the  names  of  a  long  list  of  confederates  in  crime, 
scattered  through  several  counties.  The  honest  portion  of  the 
people  now  associated  themselves  into  a  band  of  regulators, 
and  proceeded  to  order  all  suspected  persons  to  leave  the  coun- 
try. But  before  this  order  could  be  enforced,  the  election  for 
county  officers  came  on  in  August  1846,  and  those  who  were 
suspected  to  be  rogues  all  threw  their  votes  one  way,  and,  as  it 
was  asserted,  thereby  insured  the  election  of  a  sheriff  and  other 
officers  in  the  county  of  Massac,  who  were  opposed  to  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  regulators,  and  not  over  zealous  in  enforcing 
the  laws.  The  county  of  Massac  gave  about  five  hundred  votes, 
and  out  of  these  John  W.  Read,  the  successful  candidate  for 
sheriff,  received  about  three  hundred  majority.  His  opponent 
was  a  wealthy  citizen,  and,  as  it  appeared,  not  very  popular,  but 
his  influence  over  his  friends  was  almost  unlimited.  There  was 
another  unsuccessful  candidate  for  county  clerk,  of  the  same 
description.  These  two  put  themselves  at  the  head  of  their 
friends  in  Pope  and  Massac.  And  being  assisted  by  large 
numbers  from  Paducah  and  Southland,  in  Kentucky,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  drive  out  and  punish  all  suspected  persons,  and  to 
torture  them,  to  force  them  to  confess  and  disclose  the  names 
of  their  confederates.  By  this  means  the  numbers  implicated 
in  crime  were  increased  every  day.  The  mode  of  torture  ap- 
plied to  these  people,  was  to  take  them  to  the  Ohio  river,  and 
hold  them  under  water,  until  they  showed  a  willingness  to  con- 
fess. Others  had  ropes  tied  around  their  bodies  over  their 
arms,  and  a  stick  twisted  into  the  ropes  until  their  ribs  and 
sides  were  crushed  in  by  force  of  the  pressure.  Some  of  the 
persons  who  were  maltreated  in  this  way,  obtained  warrants 
for  the  arrest  of  the  regulators.  These  warrants  were  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  sheriff,  who  arrested  some  of  the  offenders ; 
but  the  persons  arrested  were  rescued  out  of  jail  in  a  short  time 


HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS.  439 

by  their  friends.  Shortly  after  ,this,  the  regulators  ordered  the 
sheriff  and  county  clerk,  together  with  the  magistrate  who  issued 
the  warrants,  to  leave  the  country,  under  the  penalty  of  severe 
corporal  punishment.  It  appears  that  by  means  of  torture  and 
bribery,  some  notorious  rogues  had  been  induced  to  accuse  the 
sheriff,  the  county  clerk,  and  the  magistrate,  of  being  members 
of  the  gang  of  robbers ;  and  it  was  upon  this  pretext  that  they 
were  ordered  to  leave  the  country. 

In  this  condition  of  things,  application  was  made  in  August 
1846,  to  the  governor,  for  a  militia  force  to  sustain  the  con- 
stituted authorities  of  Massac.  This  disturbance  being  at  a  dis- 
tance of  two  hundred  and  fifty  rniles  from  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, and  in  a  part  of  the  country  between  which  and  the  seat 
of  government  there  was  but  very  little  communication,  the 
facts  concerning  it  were  but  imperfectly  known  to  the  governor, 
for  which  reason  he  issued  an  order  to  Brigadier-General  John 
T.  Davis,  of  Williamson  county,  to  examine  into  it,  and  if  he 
judged  it  necessary  to  call  out  the  militia.  Gen.  Davis  pro- 
ceeded to  Massac,  called  the  parties  together,  and,  as  he  be- 
lieved, induced  them  to  settle  their  difficulties ;  but  he  had  no 
sooner  left  the  county,  than  violence  broke  out  afresh.  The 
regulators  came  down  from  Pope,  and  over  from  Kentucky, 
and  drove  out  the  sheriff,  the  county  clerk,  the  representative 
elect  to  the  legislature,  and  many  others ;  they  committed  ac- 
tual violence  by  whipping  a  considerable  number,  and  threat- 
ened summary  punishment  to  every  one,  rogue  or  honest  man, 
who  spoke  against  their  proceedings.  This  is  the  great  evil  of 
lynch  law.  The  lynchers  set  out  with  the  moderate  and  hon- 
est intention  of  exterminating  notorious  rogues  only.  But  as 
they  proceed,  they  find  opposition  from  many  honest  persons, 
who  can  never  divest  themselves  of  the  belief,  that  the  laws  of 
the  country  are  amply  sufficient  for  the  punishment  and  pre- 
vention of  crime.  The  lynchers  then  have  to  maintain  their 
assumed  authority,  in  opposition  to  law  and  regular  govern- 


440  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

ment,  and  they  are  apt  to  be  no  less  arbitrary  and  violent  in 
so  doing,  than  tyranny  generally  is  in  maintaining  its  preten- 
sions. For  this  reason  they  think  they  must  crush  all  opposi- 
tion, and  in  this  mode,  that  which  at  first  was  merely  a  war 
between  honest  men  and  rogues,  is  converted  into  a  war  be- 
tween honest  men  alone,  one  party  contending  for  the  supremacy 
of  the  laws,  and  the  other  maintaining  its  own  assumed  authority. 
Not  long  after  these  events,  the  circuit  court  was  held  for 
Massac.  Judge  Scates  delivered  a  strong  charge  to  the  grand 
jury  against  the  proceedings  of  the  regulators ;  the  grand  jury 
found  indictments  against  a  number  of  them.  Warrants  were 
issued  upon  the  indictments ;  quite  a  number  were  arrested  by 
the  sheriff  and  committed  to  jail.  The  regulators  assembled 
from  Kentucky  and  the  neighboring  counties  in  Dlinois,  with 
the  avowed  intention  of  releasing  the  prisoners.  They  threat- 
ened to  lynch  Judge  Scates,  if  he  ever  returned  again  to  hold 
court  in  Massac ;  and  they  ordered  the  members  of  the  grand 
jury  and  the  witnesses  before  them,  to  leave  the  country  under 
pain  of  corporal  punishment.  The  sheriff  set  about  summoning 
a  posse  to  secure  his  prisoners,  to  resist  the  regulators,  and  to 
maintain  the  authority  of  government.  But  now  was  the  reign 
of  terror  indeed.  The  regulators  by  their  violence  had  struck 
terror  into  all  moderate  men,  who,  although  they  disapproved 
of  their  proceedings,  were  afraid  to  join  the  sheriff,  for  fear  of 
being  involved  hi  the  fate  of  the  horse-thieves.  These  moder- 
ate men,  who  disapproved  of  the  proceedings  of  the  regulators, 
were  in  a  majority  of  three  to  one  in  the  county ;  but  such  is 
the  inefficiency  of  moderate  men,  that  one  bold  daring  man  of 
violence  can  generally  overawe  and  terrify  a  dozen  of  them. 
For  this  reason  the  sheriff  failed  to  raise  a  force  among  the 
reputable  moderate  men  of  the  county,  and  was  joined  only,  for 
the  most  part,  by  sixty  or  seventy  men,  who  had  been  ordered 
to  leave  the  country,  many  of  whom  were  known  to  be  noto- 
rious rogues. 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  441 

The  regulators  marched  down  to  Metropolis  city,  the  county 
seat  of  Massac,  in  much  greater  force.  A  parley  ensued  be- 
tween the  sheriff's  party  and  the  regulators ;  and  it  was  finally 
agreed  that  the  sheriff's  party  should  surrender  under  a  promise 
of  exemption  from  violence.  The  regulators  then  took  possess- 
ion of  the  jail,  liberated  their  friends  confined  in  it,  carried  sev- 
eral of  the  sheriff's  posse  along  with  them  as  prisoners,  and 
murdered  some  of  them,  by  drowning  them  in  the  Ohio  river. 
The  sheriff  and  all  his  active  friends  were  again  ordered  to  leave, 
and  were  driven  out  of  the  country. 

The  sheriff,  the  representative  to  the  legislature,  and  another 
gentleman,  then  proceeded  to  see  the  governor,  who  was  then 
at  Nauvoo,  in  Hancock  county,  with  a  military  force,  endeavor- 
ing to  reinstate  the  exiled  citizens  of  Hancock.  As  he  was  now 
within  twenty  days  of  the  expiration  of  his  office,  he  was  lothe 
to  begin  measures  with  the  Massac  rioters,  which  he  feared 
might  not  be  approved  or  pursued  by  his  successor.  Besides 
this,  from  all  former  experience,  he  was  perfectly  certain  that 
it  would  be  entirely  useless  to  order  out  the  militia  for  the  pro- 
tection of  horse-thieves.  He  well  knew  that  the  militia  could 
not  be  raised  for  such  a  purpose.  He  therefore  issued  an  order 
to  Dr.  William  J.  Gibbs,  of  Johnson  county,  authorizing  him 
to  call  upon  the  militia  officers  -in  some  of  the  neighboring  coun- 
ties, for  a  force  to  protect  the  sheriff  and  other  county  officers, 
the  magistrates,  the  grand  jury  and  the  witnesses  before  them, 
and  the  honest  part  of  the  community.  Dr.  Gibbs  proceeded 
to  Massac,  and  calling  to  his  assistance  two  justices  of  the  peace, 
he  required  the  regulators  to  come  before  them  and  establish 
their  charges,  so  that  he  could  know  who  were  and  who  were 
not  rogues,  to  be  put  out  of  the  protection  of  law.  The  regu- 
lators declined  appearing  before  him,  wherefore  the  doctor  ad- 
judged that  there  were  no  rogues  in  Massac  county,  and  that 
all  were  entitled  to  protection  against  the  regulators.  He  pro- 
ceeded to  call  for  the  militia  of  Union  and  other  counties ;  but 

19* 


442  HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

notwithstanding  the  doctor  had  adjudged  that  there  were  no 
rogues  in  Massac,  the  militia  knew  to  the  contrary,  and  as  was 
foreseen  by  the  governor,  the  militia  refused  to  turn  out  for 
their  protection.  Thus  the  regulators  were  again  left  undis- 
puted masters  of  the  county.  They  now  assembled  themselves 
together,  caught  a  number  of  suspected  persons,  and  tried  them 
by  a  committee ;  some  were  acquitted,  others  convicted,  and 
were  whipped  or  tarred  and  feathered.  The  numbers  impli- 
cated with  the  counterfeiters,  increased  rather  than  diminished. 
Many  persons  who  had  before  been  considered  honest  men, 
were  now  implicated,  which  increased  the  excitement.  Many 
who  were  formerly  in  favor  of  the  regulators,  now  left  them, 
and  disapproved  of  their  conduct.  The  one  party  was  called 
"  Regulators,"  the  other  "  Flatheads." 

A  party  of  about  twenty  regulators  went  to  the  house  of  an 
old  man  named  Mathis,  to  arrest  him  and  force  him  to  give 
evidence  of  the  guilt  of  certain  persons  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  of  some  who  had  been  inmates  of  his  house.  He  and  his 
wife  resisted  the  arrest.  The  old  woman  being  unusually 
strong  and  active,  knocked  down  one  or  two  of  the  party  with 
her  fists.  A  gun  was  then  presented  to  her  breast  accompanied 
by  a  threat  of  blowing  her  heart  out  if  she  continued  her  re- 
sistance. She  caught  the  gun  and  shoved  it  downwards,  when 
it  went  off  and  shot  her  through  the  thigh.  She  was  also 
struck  several  blows  on  the  head  with  the  gun-barrel,  inflicting 
considerable  wounds,  knocking  her  down  in  her  turn.  The  par- 
ty captured  the  old  man  Mathis  and  carried  him  away  with 
them,  since  which  time  he  has  not  been  heard  of,  but  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  murdered.  The  regulators  say  that  the 
shooting  of  the  old  lady  was  accidental.  She  made  the  proper 
affidavit  for  the  purpose  of  having  the  perpetrators  of  the  crime 
arrested.  The  proper  authorities  succeeded  in  arresting  about 
ten  of  them.  They  were  carried  to  the  Metropolis  house  in 
Metropolis  city,  and  there  placed  under  a  guard,  while  search 


HISTORY  OF   ILLINOIS.  443 

was  made  for  the  old  man  Mathis,  who  was  desired  as  a  witness 
against  the  prisoners.  The  news  of  their  arrest  having  gone 
abroad,  it  was  rumored  all  over  the  country  that  the  Flatheads 
intended  to  put  them  to  death  if  they  failed  to  convict  them. 
This  brought  out  a  large  force  of  regulators  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  rescuing  the  prisoners.  They  marched  to  Metropolis 
city,  where  they  found  the  sheriff  with  a  party  about  as  numer- 
ous as  their  own.  Various  attempts  to  compromise  the  diffi- 
culty without  the  effusion  of  blood  were  made ;  but  this  could 
be  effected  only  by  the  unconditional  release  of  the  prisoners. 
After  getting  their  friends  from  the  sheriff's  party,  the  regulators 
arrested  several  of  the  sheriff's  guards  and  delivered  them  to  the 
Kentuckians,  to  be  dealt  with  as  they  saw  proper.  In  attempt- 
ing to  arrest  one  man  they  fired  at  him  twice  without  injury, 
when  he  surrendered ;  and  as  he  was  lead  down  stairs  he  was 
stabbed  from  behind  by  one  of  the  regulators ;  and  he  having 
screamed  murder  in  consequence  of  his  wound,  a  Methodist 
preacher  who  commanded  one  of  the  regulating  companies  ex- 
claimed, "  Now  they  are  using  them  as  they  should  be."  *  The 
wounded  man  was  said,  to  be  respectable,  and  upon  good 
authority,  was  represented  to  be  an  honest,  industrious  young 
man.  The  man  who  stabbed  him  had  before  had  a  personal 
difficulty  with  him,  and  sought  this  means  of  getting  revenged. 
Thus  it  is,  when  regular  government  is  prostrated  and  the  laws 
trampled  under  foot,  apparently  for  the  best  of  purposes,  men 
will  avail  themselves  of  the  prevalent  anarchy  to  revenge  their 
private  quarrels ;  in  a  short  time  the  original  purpose  for  which 
force  is  resorted  to  will  be  forgotten ;  and  instead  of  punishing 
horse-thieves  and  robbers,  those  who  drop  the  law  and  resort 
to  force,  soon  find  themselves  fiercely  contending  to  revenge 
injuries  and  insults,  and  to  maintain  their  assumed  authority. 
The  prisoners  taken  away  by  the  Kentuckians  were  mostly 

*  See  volume  of  Illinois  Reports  for  1846-'7,  p.  96.  Senate  Documents. 


444  HISTOEY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

suspicious  characters ;  one  of  them  resided  in  Lasalle  county 
near  the  Illinois  river,  but  had  resided  several  months  at  Me- 
tropolis in  settling  the  affairs  of  an  estate,  and  whose  only  of- 
fence was  that  he  had  taken  an  active  part  in  arresting  and 
securing  the  prisoners  just  now  released.  He  was  tied  together 
with  the  other  prisoners,  and  all  of  them  taken  off  towards  Pa- 
ducah.  Letters  were  received  from  the  regulators  by  their 
friends  in  Springfield,  in  which  they  give  an  account  of  what 
they  had  done  with  several  of  these  persons.  They  wrote  that 
several  of  them  "  had  gone  to  Arkansas,"  by  which  was  under- 
stood that  they  had  drowned  their  prisoners  in  the  Ohio  river, 
and  left  their  bodies  to  float  with  the  current  in  the  direction  to 
Arkansas.  On  the  23d  of  December,  1846,  a  convention  of 
regulators  from  the  counties  of  Pope,  Massac  and  Johnson,  met 
at  Golconda,  and  ordered  the  sheriff  of  Massac,  the  clerk  of  the 
county  court,  and  many  other  citizens,  to  leave  the  country 
within  thirty  days.  The  sheriff  and  many  others  left  the  coun- 
try, and  were  absent  all  winter.  The  new  governor  and  the 
legislature  then  in  session,  were  busy  all  winter  in  devising 
measures  to  suppress  these  disturbances ;  but  nothing  effectual 
was  done.  The  legislature  passed  a  law,  the  constitutionality 
of  which  was  doubted  by  many,  authorizing  the  governor  when 
he  was  satisfied  that  a  crime  had  been  committed  by  twenty 
persons  or  more,  to  issue  his  proclamation ;  and  then  the  judge 
of  the  circuit  was  authorized  to  hold  a  district  court  in  a  large 
district,  embracing  several  counties.  By  this  means  it  was 
sought  to  evade  the  constitution  and  take  the  trial  out  of  the 
county  where  the  crime  was  committed,  against  the  will  of  the 
accused.  In  other  words,  it  was  believed  that  in  this  indirect 
mode  the  State  could  entitle  itself  to  a  change  of  venue  in  crim- 
inal cases,  against  the  will  of  the  prisoner.  Our  former  expe- 
rience had  abundantly  showed  that  when  crimes  had  been  com- 
mitted by  powerful  combinations  of  men,  the  guilty  never  could 
be  convicted  in  the  counties  in  which  the  crimes  had  been  com- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  445 

mitted.  I  have  never  learned  whether  any  proceedings  have 
taken  place  under  the  law ;  but  so  it  is,  no  one  has  yet  been 
punished ;  the  disturbances  in  Massac  have  died  away.  And 
whether  they  died  away  naturally,  being  obliged  like  every- 
thing else,  to  come  to  an  end,  or  whether  the  rioters  were  de- 
terred by  the  provisions  of  the  foregoing  act  of  the  legislature, 
is  unknown  to  the  author. 

In  the  conclusion  of  this  history,  the  author  must  be  permit- 
ted to  indulge  in  a  slight  restrospection  of  the  past.  In  1842, 
when  he  came  into  office,  the  State  was  in  debt  about  $14,000,- 
000,  for  moneys  wasted  upon  internal  improvements  and  in 
banking;  the  domestic  treasury  of  the  State  was  in  arrear 
$313,000  for  the  ordinary  expenses  of  government;  auditors' 
warrants  were  freely  selling  at  a  discount  of  fifty  per  cent. ;  the 
people  were  unable  to  pay  even  moderate  taxes  to  replenish  the 
treasury,  in  which  not  one  cent  was  contained  even  to  pay 
postage  on  letters  to  and  from  the  public  offices ;  the  great 
canal,  after  spending  five  millions  of  dollars  on  it,  was  about  to 
be  abandoned ;  the  banks,  upon  which  the  people  had  relied  for  a 
currency,  had  become  insolvent,  their  paper  had  fallen  so  low 
as  to  cease  to  circulate  as  money,  and  as  yet  no  other  money 
had  taken  its  place,  leaving  the  people  wholly  destitute  of  a  cir- 
culating medium,  and  universally  in  debt ;  immigration  to  the 
State  had  almost  ceased ;  real  estate  was  wholly  unsaleable ; 
the  people  abroad  terrified  by  the  prospect  of  high  taxation,  re- 
fused to  come  amongst  us  for  settlement ;  and  our  own  people  at 
home  were  no  less  alarmed  and  terrified  at  the  magnitude  of 
our  debt,  then  apparently  so  much  exceeding  any  known  re- 
sources of  the  country.  Many  were  driven  to  absolute  despair 
of  ever  paying  a  cent  of  it ;  and  it  would  have  required  but 
little  countenance  and  encouragement  in  the  then  disheartened 
and  wavering  condition  of  the  public  mind  to  have  plunged  the 


446  HISTOBY  OF  ILLINOIS. 

State  into  the  irretrievable  infamy  of  open  repudiation.  This 
is  by  no  means  an  exaggerated  picture  of  our  affairs  in  1842. 

In  December,  1846,  when  the  author  went  out  of  office,  the 
domestic  debt  of  the  treasury,  instead  of  being  $313,000  was 
only  $31,000,  with  $9,000  in  the  treasury  ;  auditors'  warrants 
were  at  par,  or  very  nearly  so ;  the  banks  had  been  put  into 
liquidation  in  a  manner  just  to  all  parties,  and  so  as  to  maintain 
the  character  of  the  State  for  moderation  and  integrity  ;  violent 
counsels  were  rejected  ;  the  notes  of  the  banks  had  entirely  dis- 
appeared, and  had  been  replaced  in  circulation  by  a  reasonable 
abundance  of  gold  and  silver  coin  and  the  notes  of  solvent 
banks  of  other  States ;  the  people  had  very  generally  paid  their 
private  debts ;  a  very  considerable  portion  of  the  State  debt 
had  been  paid  also  ;  about  three  millions  of  dollars  had  been 
paid  by  a  sale  of  the  public  property,  and  by  putting  the  bank 
into  liquidation ;  and  a  sum  of  five  millions  more  had  been  ef- 
fectually provided  for  to  be  paid  after  the  completion  of  the 
canal ;  being  a  reduction  of  eight  millions  of  the  State  debt 
which  had  been  paid,  redeemed,  or  provided  for,  whilst  the  au- 
thor was  in  office.  The  State  itself,  although  broken,  and  at 
one  time  discredited,  and  a  by-word  throughout  the  civilized 
world,  had  to  the  astonishment  of  every  one  been  able  to  bor- 
row on  the  credit  of  its  property,  the  further  sum  of  $1,600,000 
to  finish  the  canal ;  and  that  great  work,  at  one  time  so  hopeless 
and  so  nearly  abandoned,  is  now  in  a  fair  way  of  completion. 

The  people  abroad  have  once  more  begun  to  seek  this  good- 
ly land  for  their  future  homes.  From  1843  until  1846,  our 
population  rapidly  increased ;  and  is  now  increasing  faster  than 
it  ever  did  before.  Our  own  people  have  become  contented 
and  happy ;  and  the  former  discredit  resting  upon  them  abroad 
for  supposed  wilful  delinquency  in  paying  the  State  debt,  no 
longer  exists. 

It  is  a  just  pride  and  a  high  satisfaction  for  the  author  to  feel 
and  know  that  he  has  been  somewhat  instrumental  in  produc- 


HISTORY  OF  ILLINOIS.  447 

ing  these  gratifying  results.  In  this  history  he  has  detailed  all 
the  measures  of  the  legislature  which  produced  them ;  and  if 
these  measures  did  not  all  originate  with  him,  he  can  rightfully 
and  justly  claim  that  he  supported  them  with  all  his  power  and 
influence,  and  has  faithfully  endeavored  to  carry  them  out  with 
the  best  ability  he  could  command.  For  so  doing,  he  has  had 
to  encounter  bitter  opposition  to  his  administration ;  and  enmi- 
ties have  sprung  up  personally  against  himself  which  he  hopes 
will  not  last  forever.  For  although  he  wants  no  office,  yet  is 
he  possessed  of  such  sensibility,  that  it  is  painful  to  him  to  be 
the  subject  of  unmerited  obloquy;  and  for  this  reason,  and  this 
alone,  he  hopes  that  when  those  of  his  fellow-citizens  who  disap- 
proved of  his  administration  in  these  particulars,  have  time  to 
look  into  the  merits  of  these  measures,  and  see  how  they  have 
lifted  the  State  from  the  lowest  abyss  of  despair  and  gloom  to 
a  commanding  and  honorable  position  among  her  sisters  of  the 
Union,  they  will  not  remember  their  wrath  forever. 


THE   END. 


IVISON    &    PHINNEY'S    PUBLICATIONS. 


DAY  AND  THOMSON'S  MATHEMATICAL  SERIES, 

FOR  SCHOOLS  AND  ACADEMIES. 


I.  TABLE  BOOK.   (Eevised  and  Enlarged.)   This  work 

is  designed  for  Primary  Schools  in  which  the  elementary  steps  of  Arithmetic  are 
usually  tanght  orally  or  by  dictation.  It  is  constructed  upon  the  plan,  that  as  soon 
as  a  pupil  learns  a  fact  or  principle  in  Arithmetic,  he  should  be  taught  its  applica- 
tion and  begin  to  practice  it.  To  this  end  the  Tables,  both  in  Simple  ana  Com- 
pound Numbers,  are  first  made  familiar  by  mental  exercises,  and  then  are  applied 
to  exercises  upon  the  slate. 

n.   MENTAL    AEITHMETIC;    or,  First  Lessons  in 

Numbers.  (Revised  and  Enlarged.)  This  work  is  designed  to  furnish  a  series  of 
Mental  Exercises  in  Numbers,  adapted  to  the  capacities  of  beginners.  It  com- 
mences with  practical  examples  relating  to  objects  with  which  children  are  famil- 
iar ;  the  numbers  at  tirst  are  small,  the  transitions  gradual,  and  the  first  question 
involving  a  new  principle  is  carefully  analyzed  so  as  to  afford  a  model  of  reasoning 
for  the  solution  of  similar  examples.  It  contains  all  the  Tables  in  Simple  and  Com- 
pound Numbers. 

m.  KTJDIMENTS  OF  AEITHMETIC ;  or,  Slate  and 

Blackboard  Exercises.  (Revised  and  Enlarged.)  This  work  is  designed  for  begin- 
ners in  Written  Arithmetic,  and  carries  them  through  the  Compound  Rules. 

IV.  AEITHMETIC AL  ANALYSIS;  or,  Higher  Mental 

Arithmetic.  This  work  is  designed  as  a  Sequel  to  the  First  Lessons  in  Numbers, 
and  is  calculated  for  older  pupils,  or  those  who  have  had  some  practice  in  Intellect- 
ual Arithmetic.  It  takes  up  the  subject  where  that  work  leaves  it,  and  applies  the 
principles  of  Analysis  to  the  solution  of  a  great  variety  of  examples  not  found  in  other 
works  of  the  kind. 

V.  PEACTICAL  AEITHMETIC.     (Eevised  and  En- 

largeil.)  The  Practical  Arithmetic  has  just  been  carefully  revised  and  re-stereotyped. 
Several  hundred  new  and  ingenious  examples  have  been  added,  with  many  other 
improvements.  This  work  is  designed  for  general  use  in  Public  Schools  and  Acade- 
mies, and  contains  all  the  subjects  requisite  to  a  thorough  business  and  professional 
education  In  the  language  of  a  distinguished  teacher,  "  In  nearly  every  Article,  some- 
thing is  gained  in  the  mode  of  presenting  the  subject,  perspicuity  and  precision 
being  remarkable  throughout." 

»*»  This  is  the  first  school  book  in  which  the  standard  units  of  Weights  and  Meas- 
ures adapted  by  our  government,  in  1834,  were  published. 

VI.  KEY  TO  PEACTICAL  AEITHMETIC.  (Eevised 

and  Enlarged.)  This  work  is  prepared  for  the  use  of  Teachers  only.  In  addition 
to  the  answers,  it  exhibits  the  method  of  solving  most  of  the  examples,  with  the 
results  of  the  several  steps  in  the  operation. 

VH.  HIGHEE  AEITHMETIC.    This  work  is  intended 

for  advanced  classes  in  Schools  and  Academies.  It  gives  a  full  development  of 
the  philosophy  of  Arithmetic  and  its  various  applications  to  commercial  and  scien- 
tific purposes. 

»%  The  fact  that  the  Higher  Arithmetic  is  adopted  as  a  Text  book  in  examining 
students  for  admission  into  Yale,  College,  is  a  practical  recommendation  of  the  work, 
which  teachers  and  the  friends  of  that  venerable  institution  cannot  fail  to  appreciate. 


IV1SON    &   PHINNEY'S   PUBLICATIONS. 


Yin.   KEY  TO  HIGHER  AKITHMETIC.  This  work 

is  prepared  for  the  use  of  Teachers  only.    Besides  the  answers  to  all  the  questions, 

it  exhibits  the  mode  of  solving  the  more  difficult  examples,  with  the  results  of  the 

several  steps  in  the  operation. 

»*»  Each  of  the  above  Arithmetics  is  complete  in  itself.  While  the  language  of 
the  rules  and  definitions  of  the  same  thing  is  purposely  the  same,  the  examples  in  each 
are  all  different  from  those  in  the  others.  This  is  a  dictate  of  common  sense,  and  it  is 
believed  will  meet  the  approbation  of  every  practical  teacher. 

IX.  PLANE  TKIGONOMETKY,  AND  MENSUEA- 

TION  OF  HEIGHTS  AND  DISTANCES ;  with  a  summary  view  of 
the  Nature  and  Use  of  Logarithms  ; — Adapted  to  the  method  of 
instruction  in  Schools  and  Academies. 

X.  ELEMENTS  OF  SUKYEYING ;— Adapted  both 

to  the  wants  of  the  learner  and  the  practical  Surveyor.  (Pub- 
lished soon.) 

Distinctive  characteristics  of  Day  and  Thomson's  Series. 

1.  It  is  designed  to  cover  the  whole  ground. 

2.  It  is  eminently  practical. 

3.  The  definitions  and  rules  are  simple,  brief,  and  comprehensive. 

4.  The  subjects  are  arranged  according  to  the  natural  order  of  the  science.    Hence, 

5.  It  has  been  a  cardinal  point  never  to  anticipate  a  principle  or  rule  ;  and,never  to 
use  one  principle  in  the  explanation  of  another  until  it  has  itself  been  explained  or  de- 
monstrated. 

6.  The  principles  are  arranged  consecutively,  and  the  dependence  of  each  on  those 
that  precede  it,  is  pointed  out  by  references. 

7.  The  examples  for  illustration  are  practical  and  in  point. 

8.  The  series  is  constructed  upon  the  principle,  that  there  is  a  reason  for  every  rule 
and  operation  ;  and  that  this  reason  should  be  brought  within  the  reach  and  comprehen- 
sion of  the  learner.    To  this  end, 

9.  Nothing  is  taken  for  granted  which  requires  proof. 

10.  Each  principle  is  carefully  analyzed,  and  followed  by  sufficient  examples  to 
make  its  application  thoroughly  understood. 

11.  The  modes  of  analysis  and  reasoning  are  clear  and  logical. 

12.  The  "  whys  and  wherefores"  of  the  rules  and  operations  are  fully  given. 

13.  The  rules,  as  far  as  possible,  are  constructed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  suggest  the 
principles  upon  which  they  are  based. 

14.  The  examples  and  problems  are  numerous  and  progressively  arranged. 

15.  Last,  though  not  least,  the  series  contains  much  valuable  information  pertaining 
to  business  transactions  and  matters  of  science,  not  found  in  other  works  of  the  kind. 

»*»  The  circulation  of  Thomson's  Arithmetics,  during  the  brief  period  since  their 
publication,  is  believed  to  be  without  a  parallel,  and  the  rapidly  increasing  demand  for 
them  is  the  strongest  evidence  of  their  superior  merits. 


RECOMMENDATIONS. 

Among  the  numerous  recommendations  in  favor  of  this  series,  the 
publishers  respectfully  invite  attention  to  the  following  :  — 

From  H.  W.  FARNSWORTH,  A.M.,  Principal  of  JWto  London  Female  Academy,  Ct. 

Dear  Sir  :—  I  have  been  and  am  now  too  busy  to  give  in  detail  my  reasons  for  con- 
sidering "Thomson's  Revised  Practical  Arithmetic"  the  best  book  of  its  class  now  in 
use.  The  best  evidence  I  can  give  of  the  estimation  in  which  I  hold  the  book,  is  the 
fact,  that  it  is  now  the  text  book  of  the  Academy  of  which  I  have  the  charge.  I  am, 
very  respectfully,  yours,  H.  W.  FARNSWORTH. 

New  London,  Ct.,  Dec.  14th,  1853. 


4. 


IVISON   &    PIIINNEY'S   PUBLICATIONS. 


Prom  the  Teachers  of  the  I-'? male  JVormal  School  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
The  undersigned   have  carefully  examined  "  Thomson's  Revised  Practical  Arith- 
metic," and  take  pleasure  in  sluiing  that  its  definitions  and  rules  arc  simple,  concise,  and 
comprehensive ;  its  modes  of  reasoning  and  analysis  are  clear  and  logical,  and  the  rea- 
sons for  the  rules  full  and  satisfactory. 

We  have  used  the  former  edition  of  this  work  for  several  years  past  with  much  sat- 
isfaction ;  but  the  Revised  edition  just  issued  is  enriched  by  the  addition  of  several  hun- 
dred new  and  well  selected  examples ;  also  by  a  number  of  important  principles  re- 
specting Domestic  and  Foreign  Exchange,  Equations  of  Payments,  Duties,  &C.,  with 
much  valuable  information  pertaining  to  business  transactions  and  matters  of  science, 
not  to  be  found  in  other  books  of  the  kind. 

LEONARD  HAZELTINB,  HENRY  KIDDLE, 

WM.  BELDBN,  J.  H.  FANNING, 

DAVID  B.  SCOTT,  J.  H.  PARTRIDOK. 

New  York,  Dec.  15th,  1853. 

From  A.  W.  JOHNSTON,  Esq.,  Principal  of  Canton  Academy,  JV.  Y. 
I  think  "Thomson's  Revised  Practical  Arithmetic"  the  best  Arithmetic  published. 


From  A.  L.  MACDUFF,  A.M.,  Principal  of  Bergen  Academy,  JV.  J. 


ness,  render  it  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  Arithmetics. 


From  N.  P.  STANTON,  A.M..,  Principal  of  JSrockport  Collegiate  Institute,  JV.  Y. 
"  Thomson's  Practical  Arithmetic"  has  been  the  text  book  in  the  schools  under  my 
charge  in  the  cities  of  Syracuse  and  Buffalo,  also  in  the  institution  over  which  I  am  now 
placed.    In  my  opinion,  it  excelled  all  other  Arithmetics  at  the  time  of  its  first  publica- 
tion, and  the  revised  edition  has  no  equal,  N.  P.  STANTON. 
Brockport,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  24th,  1853. 

From  D.  MA.CAULEY,  Esb.,  Chairman  of  Book  Committee,  Public  Schools,  City  of 

JVejfl  Orleans. 

Thomson's  works  require  only  to  be  known  to  be  introduced  into  schools  in  which 
Arithmetic  is  considered  an  important  branch  of  study.    We  have  examined  them 
carefully,  and  have  no  hesitation  in  pronouncing  them  admirably  tilted  for  schools  of 
every  description,  and  superior,  as  a  whole,  to  any  we  have  yet  seen. 
New  Orleans,  Nov.  9tb,  1853. 

From  A.  D.  STANLEY,  A.M.,  Prof.  Mathematics,  Yale  College. 
Thomson's  "  Practical  Arithmetic"  commends  itself  to  teachers  for  the  clearness 
and  precision  with  which  its  rules  and  principles  are  stated,  for  the  number  and  variety 
of  examples  it  furnishes  as  exercises  for  the  pupil,  and  especially  for  the  care  which  the 
author  has  taken  to  present  appropriate  suggestions  and  observations,  wherever  they 
are  needed  to  clear  up  any  difficulties  that  are  likely  to  embarrass  the  learner.  In  rec- 
ommending the  work  as  a  class  book  for  pupils,  it  is  not  unimportant  to  state,  that  the 
author  has  himself  had  much  experience  in  the  business  of  instruction,  and  has  thus  had 
occasion  to  know  where  there  was  room  for  improvement  in  the  elementary  treatises  in 
common  use.  Without  such  experience,  no  one  can  be  qualified  to  prepare  a  class  book 
for  schools. 

From  the  Principals  of  the  Public  Schools,  Albany,  JV.  Y. 

Within  the  last  few  years,  no  less  than  ten  different  systems  of  Arithmetic  have 
been  more  or  less  used  in  our  schools.  About  two  years  since,  in  view  of  this  evil,  we 
examined  several  of  the  more  prominent  Arithmetics,  and  agreed  with  perfect  unanim- 
ity upon  Thomson's  series,  as  the  best  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  pupil,  and  the  gen- 
eral purposes  of  instruction. 

We  are  happy  to  say,  that  after  a  trial  of  more  than  two  years,  we  are  confirmed  as 
to  the  excellency  of  the  books,  that  they  have  grown  in  favor  by  daily  use,  and  that  we 
have  succeeded  in  making  belter  arithmeticians  than  by  the  use  of  any  other  books 
SAMUEL  STEEL,  A.  T.  BALDWIN, 

J.  W.  BULKLEY,  WM.  H.  HUGHES, 

WM.  JANES,  WM.  L.  MARTIN, 

ROBERT  TRUMBULL,  THOS.  W.  VALENTINE, 

E.  S.  ADAMS,  JOEL  MARBLE. 

From  Rev.  S.  J.  MAY,  late  Prin.  State  JVormal  School,  Lexington,  Mass. 
I  have  given  some  time  to  the  examination  of  Thomson's  "Practical  Arithmetic," 
and  am  happy  in  being  able  to  speak  of  it  in  terms  of  high  commendation.    The  plan 
is  excellent,  and  the  execution  of  the  plan  thorough. 


IVISON   &   PHINNEY  S    PUBLICATIONS. 


From  A.  S.  WELCH,  A.B.,  Principal  of  Jonesville  Union  School. 
I  have  used  Thomson's  Arithmetics  nearly  one  year  in  the  Institution  under  my 
charge,  and,  as  I  think,  thoroughly  tested  their  excellence.    In  arrangement,  perspicuity, 
and  precision,  they  furnish  a  complete  remedy  for  the  defects  in  all  other  systems.    I 
heartily  wish  that  they  could  be  introduced  into  all  our  Schools. 

From  N.  W.  BUTTS,  Graduate  of  JV.  T.  State  Normal  School,  Principal  of  Flint 

Union  School. 

I  have  given  Thomson's  Arithmetics  a  thorough  examination,  and  I  am  prepared  to 
say  that  their  equal  is  nowhere  to  be  found.  They  are  all  developed  at  the  right  place, 
and  in  the  right  way  to  be  grasped  by  the  pupil,  and  suitably  to  impress  his  mind. 

From  Rev.  SAM.  NEWBURY,  Jaekson,  Agent  for  National  Board  of  Popular  Education. 
These  Arithmetics  are  preferable  to  any  others  with  which  1  am  acquainted,  and 
are  eminently  well  adapted  to  school  purposes. 

From  the  Principals  of  the  Public  Schools,  JVeie  Haven,  Ct. 

I  have  given  Thomson's  "  Practical  Arithmetic"  as  careful  a  perusal  as  my  time 
would  permit.  I  think  it  a  work  of  very  great  merit.  The  plan  of  it,  which  has  been 
ably  carried  out,  appears  to  me  to  be  natural  and  philosophical.  The  definitions  and 
rules  are  exceedingly  clear,  and  will  be  easily  understood  by  those  for  whose  instruction 
they  are  designed.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  I  consider  it  the  best  of  all  the  excellent  works 
of  the  kind  with  which  I  am  acquainted.  J.  £.  Lo  VKLL. 

We  fully  concur  in  Mr.  Lovell's  views  respecting  Thomson's  "Practical  Arithme- 
tic," and  are  gratified  to  know  that  the  Board  of  Visitors  have  adopted  it  for  the  Public 
Schools  of  this  city.  PRELATE  DEMICK. 

WM.  H.  WAT. 

From  N.  L.  GALLUP,  C.  HARRIS,  GEO.  B.  COOK,  Esqs.,  Principals  of  the  Public  Schools, 
Hartford,  Ct. 


From  C.  H.  ANTHONY.  A.M.,  Principal  of  Albany  Classical  Institute,  JV.  Y. 
I  have  never  before  had  so  many  good  arithmeticians  under  my  charge  as  I  have 
since  I  began  to  use  Thomson's  "  Practical"  and  "  Higher"  Arithmetics. 

From  L.  WETHERELL,  A.M.,  Prof,  of  Math.,  Collegiate  Institute,  Rochester,  JV.  K 

I  have  been  using  Thomson's  "  Practical  Arithmetic"  about  a  year  and  a  half,  and 
it  gives  me  pleasure  to  say,  that  I  find  it  the  best  book  of  the  kind  that  I  have  ever 
used. 

From  Prof.  N.  W.  BENEDICT,  A.M.,  Rochester  Collegiate  Institute,  JV.  T. 
After  a  constant  use  of  Thomson's  "  Practical"  and  "  Higher"  Arithmetics  in  this 
Institution  for  several  years,  I  believe  them  to  be  the  best  books  extant,  in  the  depart- 
ment to  which  they  belong. 

From  GEO.  G.  ROONEY,  Esq.,  Principal  of  Trenton  Grammar  School,  JV.  J. 
I  have  formed  a  class  in  Thomson's  "  Higher  Arithmetic,"  and  am  perfectly  satis- 
fled  that  it  is  just  such  a  text  book  as  every  grammar  school  needs. 

From  M.  WEED,  A.M.,  Principal  of  Hamilton  Academy,  JV.  F. 
I  have  examined  with  great  care  and  deep  interest  Thomson's  "  Higher  Arith- 
metic," and  am  prepared  to  speak  with  unqualified  favor  in  its  behalf.  I  adopted  it 
for  my  teachers'  class  the  autumn  past,  and  can  truly  say,  I  never  had  a  book  gain  so 
great  favor  with  a  class  so  well  prepared  to  judge.  Both  in  matter  and  manner  I  think 
it  an  admirable  book, 

From  J.  W.  EARLE,  A.M.,  Principal  of  Springville  Academy,  JV.  T. 
I  have  found  Thomson's  "  Higher  Arithmetic"  everything  I  could  wish.    It  is  by 
far  the  best  work  of  the  kind  that  has  ever  been  published,  in  my  opinion. 

From  S.  M.  TRACT,  A.B.,  Principal  of  Syracuse  Academy,  JV.  T. 
Thomson's  "  Practical  Arithmetic"  has  been  used  by  me  with  marked  success. 
The  matter  is  simply  and  judiciously  arranged.    As  a  whole,  I  consider  it  superior  to 
any  work  of  the  kind  I  have  seen. 

From  E.  D.  BARBOUR,  Principal  of  Delevan  High  School,  Wisconsin. 
Thomson's  Arithmetics  are  to  be  desired  as  text  books  above  all  works  on  the  same 
subject. 


IVISON  &  PHINNEY'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


From  W.  L.  EATON,  Prof.  Mathematics,  Kalamazoo  Branch  University,  Mich. 

I  have  lately  been  examining  several  works  on  the  subject  of  Arithmetic,  (among 
them  Adams',  Davies',  Perkins',  &c.,)  with  a  view  to  determine  their  relative  merits, 
and  I  must  give  my  unhesitating  and  decided  preference  for  Thomson's  Scries. 

From  G.  P.  WILLIAMS,  A.M.,  Prof,  of  Mathematics  in  the  University  of  Michigan. 

I  have  examined  the  "  Higher  Arithmetic"  by  James  B.  Thomson,  A.M.,  and  do  not 
hesitate  to  say,  that  it  gives  a  more  full  and  complete  development  of  the  philosophy  of 
Arithmetic,  and  its  application  to  commercial  and  business  purposes,  than  any  work  of 
the  kind  with  which  I  am  acquainted. 

Resolution  of  the  Board  of  Education  for  the  City  of  Detroit,  Mich. 
Resolved,  That  Thomson's  Series  of  Arithmetics  be  adopted  as  text  books  in  the 
Public  Schools  of  this  city. 

FromWyi.  H.  FRANCIS,  Principal  of  the  Union  School,  Detroit. 
I  am  of  opinion,  after  fully  testing  them— having  taken  classes  through  the  "  Prac- 
tical" and  "  Higher"— that  no  other  text  books  extant  afford  equal  facilities  for  acquir- 
ing arithmetical  knowledge. 

From  F.  P.  CUMMINS,  A.M.,  Prof,  of  Languages  in  Lnporte  University,  Indiana. 

Permit  me  to  say,  after  a  careful  examination,  that  Thomson's  Arithmetics  are  the 
very  best  that  have  been  presented  to  the  literary  public  ;  and  as  such,  I  have  cordially 
adopted  them,  and  would  recommend  them  to  the  favorable  notice  of  teachers  in  the 
West. 

From  Prof.  EDWARD  DANIELS,  Geologist  to  the  State  of  Wisconsin. 
I  have  examined  Thomson's  Series  of  Arithmetics,  and  regard  them  excellent  books 
of  their  kind — far  better  than  Ray's.    Thomson's  "  Higher  Arithmetic"  is  a  matchless 
book,  and  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  advanced  arithmetical  student. 

From  Prof.  C.  T.  HINMAN,  Prin.  of  the  Wesleyan  Seminary,  Albion,  Mich. 
Thomson's  Arithmetics  are  the  best  extant.    We  have  introduced  them  into  our 
Seminary. 

From  A.  W.  INOALLS,  Esq.,  Principal  of  Public  School,  Chicago,  III. 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  I  consider  each  number  in  Thomson's  Series  of 
Arithmetics  unrivaled. 

I  fully  concur  with  the  above. 

H.  J.  SKIFF,  Prin.  Chicago  Academy. 

From  Prof.  C.  C.  OLDS,  Prin.  of  Rock  River  Seminary,  Mount  Morris,  III. 
I  have,  with  much  pleasure,  examined  Thomson's  "  Practical  Arithmetic."    It  is 
admirably  adapted  to  meet  the  wants  of  our  Schools,  and  eminently  worthy  of  public 
patronage.    I  hope  it  may  meet  with  great  favor  in  the  growing  West,  and  be  regarded 
in  its  true  light,  as  the  best  Arithmetic  yet  before  the  public. 

From  C.  S.  RICHARDS,  A.M.,  Prin.  Kimball  Union  Academy,  Meriden,N.  H. 
We  can  give  no  higher  recommendation  of  Thomson's  "  Practical  Arithmetic"  than 
to  say  that,  after  a  careful  comparison  with  many  other  works  of  the  kind,  we  intro- 
duced it  into  our  Academy  a  year  and  a  half  since.  It  has  exceeded  our  first  estimation 
of  its  excellence,  and  we  would  exchange  it  for  no  other  text  book  of  the  kind  with 
which  we  are  acquainted. 

From  3.  L.  SPENCER,  A.B.,  Principal  of  Amherst  Academy,  Mass. 
No  one  can  examine  Thomson's  "Practical  Arithmetic,"  without  being  convinced 
that  too  much  has  not  been  said  in  its  favor.    I  know  of  no  treatise  on  Arithmetic  so 
complete  in  its  arrangement ;  none  in  which  the  principles  are  stated  with  such  clear- 
ness and  precision. 

From  B.  M.  HANCE,  A.M.,  Principal  of  Adrian  Union  Seminary. 
I  have  critically  examined  Thomson's  Arithmetics,  and  feel  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  they  are  the  best  text  books  upon  the  subject  of  Arithmetic  with  which  I  am  ac- 
quainted.   I  have  introduced  them  into  the  Seminary. 

From  Porf.  ORAMEL  HASFORD,  of  Olivet  Institute. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  Thomson's  "Higher"  and  "Practical"  Arith- 
metics give  a  more  complete  and  definite  idea  of  the  nature  and  relations  of  numbers, 
together  with  their  application  to  business  transactions,  than  any  other  works  which 
have  as  yet  been  presented  to  the  public. 


IVISON  &  PHINNEY'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


Prom  Prof.  S.  S.  GREEN,  Brown  University,  late  Prin.  of  Phillips'  Grammar  School, 

Boston,  Mass. 

I  am  particularly  pleased  with  the  practical  character  of  Thomson's  "  Practical 
Arithmetic,"  the  systematic  and  natural  arrangement  of  its  parts,  the  exactness  of  the 
definitions,  the  clearness  with  which  the  principles  are  explained  and  illustrated,  and 
the  concise,  yet  explicit  language,  with  which  the  rules  are  stated.  Mr.  Thomson  has 
done  a  good  service  by  removing  from  the  tables  of  Weights  and  Measures  all  de- 
nominations out  of  use,  and  by  introducing  those  adopted  by  the  General  Government. 
The  work,  in  fine,  is  well  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  instruction. 

From  Rev.  C.  PIERCE,  Prin.  State  Normal  School,  West  Newton,  Mass. 
Besides  happily  setting  forth  and  explaining  the  common  principles  of  numbers  and 
their  applications,  illustrating  the  same  by  appropriate  examples  both  abstract  and  prac- 
. tical,  Thomson's  "Higher  Arithmetic"  contains  many  suggestions,  in  regard  to  the  na- 
ture of  numbers  and  modes  of  operations,  which  aru  ingenious  and  useful. 

From  Hon.  JUDGE  BLACKMAN,  A.M,  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  School  Visitors  of  the 

City  of  New  Haven,  Ct. 

I  have  examined  with  attention  Thomson's  "  Practical  Arithmetic,"  and  consider  it 
decidedly  the  best  work  for  inculcating  and  illustrating  the  principles  and  practice  of 
Arithmetic  which  I  have  ever  seen. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  School  Visitors  of  the  First  School  Society  of  the  City 
of  New  Haven,  Ct.,  duly  warned  and  convened — 

Voted,  That  the  "  Practical  Arithmetic,"  by  James  B.  Thomson,  A.M.,  be  prescrib- 
ed for  use  by  each  school  of  this  society.  H.  G.  LEWIS,  Sec. 

from  the  Principals  of  the  Public  Schools  in  the  City  of  New  York. 
After  a  careful  examination  of  Thomson's  "  Practical  Arithmetic,"  we  cheerfully 
express  our  hearty  approbation  of  it.    Having  used  the  work  in  our  Schools,  we  are 
free  to  say  that  we  deem  it  better  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  instruction  than  any  other 
text  book  of  the  kind  with  which  we  are  acquainted. 

WILLIAM  BKLDEN,  JOHN  PATTERSON,  ASA  SMITH, 

LEONARD  HAZELTINE,  JOHN  H.  FANNING,  THOMAS  P.  OKIE, 

A.  K.  VAN  VLECK,  M.  J.  O'DONNELL,  MARVIN  W.  Fox, 

DAVID  PATERSON,  GEORGE  MOORE,  J.  A.  FERGUSON, 

WILLIAM  H.  REUOK.  CHARLES  S.  PELL,  B.  G.  BRUCE, 

NATHANIEL  W.  STARR.  WILLIAM  H.  WOOD,  WILLIAM  W.  SMITH. 

From  Hon.  IRA  MAYHEW,  Sup't.  of  Public  Instruction,  State  of  Michigan. 

For  the  last  thirteen  years  I  have  given  special  attention  to  the  subject  of  Arithme- 
tic— in  the  school-room  and  in  the  study — with  reference  to  supplying  (or  seeing  sup- 
plied) deficiencies  in  existing  works,  and  obtaining  a  series  adapted  to  the  wants  of  stu- 
dents of  all  grades — a  series  scientific  in  theory  and  practical  in  its  applications. 

After  the  most  careful  examination,  I  am  fully  satisfied  that  each  volume  in  the 
series  under  consideration  is  unrivalled.  Taken  together,  as  a  WHOLE,  I  regard  Day 
and  Thomson's  Series  of  Arithmetics  the  best  I  have  ever  seen.  I  shall  recommend 
their  introduction  into  the  Schools  of  this  State.  I  trust  they  will  go  into  general  use. 

From  Prof.  D.  M.  GRAHAM,  of  Michigan  Central  College,  Spring  Arbor. 
Though  I  was  highly  gratified  with  Thomson's  "  Higher  Arithmetic,"  upon  first  ex- 
amination. I  was  unable  to  appreciate  its  real  worth  until  I  had  seen  the  scholar  cnsily 
and  rapidly  mastering,  by  its  help,  the  difficult  parts  of  Arithmetic.  Our  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction  has  not  said  too  much  in  its  behalf. 

From  Hon.  D.  L.  GREGG,  Supt.  of  Public  Schools,  Illinois. 
Day  and  Thomson's  Series  of  Arithmetics  is  the  best  I  have  ever  seen. 

From  Hon.  NEWTON  CLOUD,  JOSEPH  GILLKSPIE,  WILLIAM  TICHENOR,  W.  B.  PLATO, 

and  3.  P.  HANDY,  Committee  of  the  State  Senate  on  Education. 
We  have  examined  Day  and  Thomson's  Arithmetical  Series,  and  find  them  supe- 
rior to  any  other  works  of  the  kind  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  and  think  that  the 
interests  of  education  would  be  advanced  by  their  introduction,  generally,  into  the  Com- 
mon and  High  Schools  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 

We  cheerfully  and  fully  concur  in  the  above  opinion  expressed  by  the  Senate  Com- 
mittee on  education. 

HON.  WM.  M'MURRAY,  Lieut.  Gov.  and  Pres.  of  the  Senate. 

HON.  THOMAS  M.  KILPATRIC,  Pres.  of  the  Illinois  State  Educational  Society. 

HON.  M.  BRAMAN,  S.  W.  ROBBINS,  A.  CAMPBELL,  Executive  Committee. 


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